Chamber potty.. drivers flout law

JUST nipping in . . . illegal parking outside the store on Chamber Road

1 More Image(s) In Gallery

OLDHAM Council is warning motorists who illegally park their car outside a superstore that they have their eye on them.

The council is responding to concerns raised by residents about the dangers caused by drivers parking outside the Manchester Superstore, on Chamber Road, who are double parking, parking on the pavement and ignoring double yellow lines.

It's a problem that stems back to 2015 when the supermarket added a front extension to the building and reduced a significant amount of the car park.

Although the store reached an agreement with the opposite cricket club for customers to use their car park, motorists still chose to flout the law.

So the council acted quickly by putting double yellow lines on either side of the road ­- from Coppice Street to Kennedy Street ­- and issued a staggering 89 parking fines for that month.

Double parking

But two years on the problem has reared its head again with a local resident, who wished to remain anonymous, telling the Chronicle that drivers continue to ignore the double yellows, double park and park on the pavement.

She went on to say that as a regular user of Chamber Road she sees people pushing full shopping trolleys across the road to get to the cricket club car park as well as people driving dangerously.

She said: "It started with the extension that was built which reduced the size of the car park. It is a shop that is big enough to take a shopping trolley around, so it shows you the amount of people that will go there with their cars.

"That resulted in double parking and people parking on the pavement which caused all sorts of traffic problems.

"A couple of years ago there were staff in the middle of the road directing traffic. The council introduced double yellow lines but two years on they are just getting ignored.

She said: "It's been like this for the past two years and it is just dangerous. Apparently there is some sort of agreement with the cricket club over the road that customers are allowed to park there, but you see people crossing the road with trolleys full of shopping. But they're hard to control, it's a matter of time before a child gets hit."

A Oldham Council spokesman confirmed that the council was aware of the issues and would be monitoring the situation and take appropriate action where needed.

Abdul Podha, director of Manchester Superstore, said that when the supermarket was acquired in 2015 they saw a 'considerable amount' of customers visit the store, especially as it was during the Ramadan period.

"The double impact of our launch promotional prices, and the normally busier Ramadan period, led to a considerable amount of customers wanting to visit the new store. It attracted many people from far afield who would not normally shop there but wanted to take advantage of the discount price promotions," he said.

He went on to say that historically, customer vehicles had parked outside the supermarket but there had been a knee jerk reaction to how busy the store was during its opening weeks when double yellow parking restriction lines appeared directly outside.

Abdul said: "We believe that there had been considerable local political pressure, initiated by other similar businesses in Oldham, to influence this implementation.

"We ourselves spoke to local councillors about the yellow line issue and they admitted that it was a particularly harsh measure and that they would see if the yellow line restriction to one side of Chamber Road could be removed. Nothing has happened yet.

"After the busy Ramadan period had subsided, we took steps to acquire extra parking by entering into an agreement with Werneth Cricket Club, directly across Chamber Road from the store, to lease 34 additional parking spaces.

"This was to accommodate any future fluctuations in parking demand. This additional store parking is indicated clearly by 7 signs on both sides of Chamber Road. Additionally, at busier times, the store proactively manages and marshals incoming customer vehicles."

He added: "We actively monitor the parking situation and, in the past two years, it is only this Ramadan period now where we have been busier again. Last year was somewhat quieter.

"Occasionally, we have noticed that some customers decide to still park on Chamber Road, even when there are available spaces both at the store and across the road.

"Where possible, staff colleagues attempt to direct them to a parking space.

"When these people are asked to park in one of the spaces provided, they often remark that they are not going to be long and that further down on Chamber Road people are always parking on yellow lines outside the small shops and schools."