FRUSTRATED supermarket bosses printed a council officer's phone number on till receipts so customers could complain about traffic chaos outside their store.

Fed-up customer service managers at Asda, in Grimshaw Park, Blackburn, urged people to ring highways officer Nick Hughes and make a personal protest.

They said that predictions of traffic chaos when the new B&Q Warehouse opened two weeks ago were ignored by Blackburn with Darwen Council and now their staff are being abused as customers get caught up in queues.

Today council regeneration chief Coun Andy Kay said he was upset the store had singled out an officer and that the roads were bound to be busy after the new store opening.

But he added that traffic signals in the area were being checked and would be amended if improvements could be made.

The store has now agreed to take Mr Hughes' name and number off the receipts.

Congestion in Park Road, has caused problems for motorists getting on and off the Asda car park since B&Q opened on a site opposite.

Store bosses said problems had begun when a one-way system and new traffic signals were introduced in the area as part of the town centre orbital system last year.

But complaints have increased since the opening of B&Q, prompting fears customers would start shopping at other stores.

Bernadette Hoolahan, customer service manager at Asda, said she put Mr Hughes' name on the receipt after her car park patrol officers were almost run-over by angry customers.

She said: "Staff on car park patrols were putting their lives at risk and getting abuse for something beyond their control. They have been doing their best to get customers off the car park and should not be treated like this.

"I warned Mr Hughes I'd put his name on the receipt to take the blame away from my patrols and have phoned the highways department every day since it went on."

Today she said: "Mr Hughes has now called me and asked me to take his name off the receipt and promised to carry out work to ease the problem by the end of the week.

"However, problems are worse than ever. When I tried to leave the store on Saturday at 2.20pm I was still on the car park at 2.50pm. It is not the car park that's too busy, as there were plenty of spaces available. It is the road layout and traffic signals that lead to this chaos."

Nafisha Logat, deputy customer service manager at Asda, said: "Asda has done everything possible to improve congestion for shoppers getting off the car park, including making more exit lanes and increasing the number of car park patrols, but the problem lies with the road layout."

Store bosses said congestion problems on the Blackburn orbital route - which follows a one-way system around Grimshaw Park - reach their peak over the weekend, particularly from 4-6pm Saturday and Sunday. They said shoppers can be stuck for up to 30 minutes, by which time some of their frozen food purchases had defrosted.

Coun Andy Kay, executive member for regeneration said: "This is the first few weeks of a new B&Q development and as such is going to be very popular.

"It is also regrettable that Asda has taken the decision to single out a particular officer.

"Our officers have been in contact with the store and in response to concerns raised have arranged for a contractor to check and amend as necessary the traffic signal timings which may be responsible for the problems facing shoppers.

"However, whether there is a fault or not we will be looking to make adjustments to the signals anyway to take into account extra traffic flow during peak hours."