EAST Lancashire's big towns have all kinds of problems in coping with cars and finding places for them to park.

Whether parking should be free, or timed with costly penalties for those who overstay, is a subject that will continue to cause controversy.

And for towns like Blackburn it is especially important that shoppers don't desert the centre in favour of out-of-town retail parks where parking is easier and free.

But such problems are every bit as difficult, if not more so, for a small community like Whalley with a narrow shop-filled main street and a lot of people living in a comparatively small area close by.

The result is that shoppers and local residents compete for parking spaces and frayed tempers are certain to follow.

Some people in the village want a car park on Vale Gardens which would enable parking restrictions to be imposed on the main streets.

Others are in favour of a revamp of the village's bus station which, it is said, would make it impossible to develop a car park on the site that has been earmarked for the purpose.

The solution to the apparent impasse, according to one councillor, is a referendum to decide the issue.

What a sound idea, and one which may just strike more of a chord with some locals than the Euro one we have heard so much about this week!