NO-NONSENSE Phil Swire thought he had the perfect solution to people parking outside his works. He painted his own yellow lines!

But the burly businessman was shocked to find that HE was the only driver to get booked.

The trouble began when Phil ran out of patience with motorists blocking the loading bay entrance at his Woodworking Machines Ltd business in Croft Street, Bury.

Clutching his £30 parking ticket, Phil explained: "I asked the council if yellow lines could be put down but they said they could not afford it.

"I offered to pay for it myself, but they refused."

So Phil bought a tin of yellow paint and created his own 10-metre "No Parking" zone outside his gates. And that solved the problem!

"Next thing I know I have a traffic warden walking past all the cars parked on the pavement and giving me a ticket! I told him the lines were there just to help my business and had nothing to do with the council, but he wasn't interested. I painted the yellow lines myself so how can I be charged for parking illegally?

"There are no official restrictions. The lines were not authorised by the council, they were not paid for by the council and the council did not paint them.

"If I have done wrong by defacing the roads then, fair enough, I'll pay for any damage and accept the consequences.

"But those yellow lines are not there to get money out of people; they are there so that I can run my business properly.

"I won't be paying the fine", said a determined Phil.

Later there was good news for Phil from a council spokesman who confirmed that the fine notice would be withdrawn, adding:

"The council takes a dim view of residents taking charge of the public highway in this way and we will be writing a strongly-worded letter to Mr Swire instructing him to remove these yellow lines. If he fails to do so, we will certainly consider prosecution.

"Clearly, in these circumstances, we had no legal powers to issue the parking fine in the first place, although our attendant acted quite properly.

"We suspect that Mr Swire would not be complaining now if it had been another driver who had been booked.

"The phrase 'hoist with his own petard' comes to mind".