New yellow lines blow for parking in Darwen (From Blackburn Citizen)

New yellow lines blow for parking in Darwen

7:00pm Wednesday 6th February 2013 in Darwen By Dan Clough, Reporter

PEOPLE living on a Darwen estate were left scratching their heads after recently-created ‘parking spaces’ had yellow lines painted next to them.

Last year, grass verges in Birch Hall Avenue and Levens Grove were resurfaced by Twin Valley Homes and used as parking bays by residents.

But last week, double yellow lines were painted across some of the bays, causing confusion.

Council chiefs said the yellow lines were painted for good rea- sons and that the resurfaced areas were not necessarily intended to be parking bays.

Birch Hall Avenue resident Bri Lomax said he was shocked to discover a parking space he used had yellow lines across it.

He said: “I was enjoying having the extra parking area until the yellow lines appeared.

“To me it is madness. Twin Valley Homes lowered the kerb and took some grass and soil away, resurfaced the area and it looked great.

“Then a contractor came along and painted double yellow lines in the road where the work had been done.”

Council bosses said that, following complaints about parking close to the mini-roundabout at the junction of Birch Hall Avenue and Ribble Avenue, officers found yellow lines previously existed there and had faded.

Twin Valley Homes approached the council and funded the conversion of some of the verges into hardstanding which could be used for parking.

Blackburn with Darwen’s executive member for Regeneration, Coun Dave Harling, said: “The yellow lines in que- stion were corr- ectly placed to discourage parking so close to the junction.

“They had faded over time and didn’t get re-painted when the mini-roundabout was built.

“Twin Valley Homes proposed that the grass verge in question be converted into parking bays.

“However, it was found that the area wasn’t big enough to accommodate this.

“As an alternative, the verge was transformed into hardstanding to accommodate any over-running and prevent ruts and muddy areas caused by parking on the grass verge.”