AN Accrington retailer is fuming after getting a ticket for parking outside his shop to load his van.

And today a business pressure group backed the boss, criticising "over the top parking regimes".

Gary Davies, who runs furniture store Davies of Accrington, in Blackburn Road, with his wife Julie, said he loads his van to make deliveries of furniture to customers around five times a day.

He was concerned when parking was decriminalised, transferring control for enforcement from the police to local authorities, earlier this year because of a 30-minute parking zone outside his store.

But he was reassured after talking to parking attendants patrolling the town centre that discretion would be given to businesses loading and unloading.

However, on Monday afternoon, while he was preparing his next load for delivery, he was booked for parking there.

Mr Davies, 41, said: "I have to make at least five trips to the shop every day to load up the van for deliveries because I bought a smaller van so I wouldn't block Blackburn Road when I loaded up.

"I have also asked for a loading bay out there before and been turned down. Now I have been given a parking ticket.

"There is no other way of doing it, apart from closing my shop down and moving somewhere else. If I can't load and unload, then I can't do business.

"The warehouse is on the third floor so orders have to be brought down from there and taken through the shop to the van, which could take anything from five minutes to an hour."

Hyndburn Council leader Coun Peter Britcliffe said: "One can only presume the attendant didn't know that he was loading and unloading and perhaps he should have left a note in the van. If he wants to contact the council we will certainly look into the situation for him."

But Kevin Delaney from traffic pressure group the RAC Foundation said: "Parking attendants are given no discretion at all when it comes to enforcing parking contraventions."

A spokesman from the Federation for Small Businesses added: "It is an area of big concern for us. The danger is that over-the-top parking regimes will drive out small businesses who will find that they can't trade because there is no parking for themselves or their customers."