Blackburn woman fed up of cars blocking paths for mobility scooters

Ann Sutcliffe, from Blackburn, uses a mobility scooter and encounters problems like this regularly when she drives around the town, although it is a particular problem on some of the narrow pavements around Four Lane Ends.

She said in the past she has printed out polite notices asking people to be careful of how they parked and placed them under the wiper of the offending vehicles.

This improved the problem for a while, but Ann noticed after the pandemic when she started going out more again, the issue was back to its previous level.

The offending car that was blocking Ann's path (Image: Ann Sutcliffe)

After this latest encounter, Ann, who lives in Rhodes Avenue, decided enough was enough and posted a picture of the car on Next Door, along with a message pleading to people to think about where they are parking.

READ MORE: Council clarifies rules after parking ‘confusion’ near Ewood Park

She said: “I was coming back from town and I came round the corner at the top of Shear Brow at Four Lane Ends.

"It’s very tight and very narrow and there was a car parked on double yellow lines, on the pavement, with no room to get past.

“There’s no way I could have got past on my scooter. It was virtually on the traffic lights.

“I was so annoyed because I’d managed to get home without any incidents.

"It was just the final straw so I took a photo and put it on Next Door and got quite a few reactions.”

Ann added she has previously spoken to the council about this problem but was told it could not do anything unless it was a persistent issue with one particular car.

She said: “As far as I’m concerned if you’ve got proof of a car being parked there, there should be no problem about booking them or whatever.

"I think even if it’s a one-off something should be done.”

Because of the problematic parking, Ann had to reverse back to the crossing point at the traffic lights as she was unable to turn around due to the narrow pavement.

READ MORE: Eight drivers ticketed for parking in restricted areas

She waited there before the driver at the front of the waiting queue allowed her in front, and she had to drive down the road until she got to the next drop-down curb that was either not at a point too narrow for her scooter to get up onto the pavement or too big a step for her scooter.

She added a lot of them are like “drop-down steps” and the machine “just won’t take that”.

Ann also had a bone to pick with people who park next to lampposts, leaving no space to get past, and lampposts with rubbish bins attached to them, saying they were the “bane of her life.”

She continued: “I don’t know why people think they should be able to park on a narrow pavement and not leave a space for people to get past.

Another similar incident occurred on Lammack Road in Blackburn (Image: Ceri J)

“But then to park on double yellow lines and on the pavement, and to cap it all off, right next to traffic lights. All of those should be offences.

“Once you mention it so many people say ‘oh yes I know it’s a nuisance’ but they don’t do anything about it.

"I’ve tried my best and after I put notes on the cars it did get better for a while.

“I’m sure some people have got quite a collection of them because I feel like a lot of times I’m putting them on the same cars.”

Ann also said she has contacted her local councillor about the issue several times.

Cllr Phil Riley, leader of Blackburn with Darwen council, said: “Parking in residential areas is a huge problem across the town.

"The roads were simply not built for the number of vehicles that are now using them.

“Ann raises an important point from a road safety perspective and we can only plead with residents to be considerate of others when they park.

"They should not block up the entire pavement as this makes life difficult and unsafe for people with mobility issues and anyone pushing a pram.”