ANYONE who has been near Ewood Park when Blackburn Rovers are at home will know that parking places are at a premium.

Fans have either to arrive extremely early to nab a spot in a street anywhere near or pay plenty to park at the ground

And you only need to ask folk living in nearby streets, paying for residents-only permits and finding their spaces occupied by intruders what they think of parking provision on match days.

It will be a relief, then, to the Rovers fans with expensive reserved places on one of Ewood's council-owned car parks to learn that though it is being denied to them on match days next season because it is being used for Blackburn's first park-and-ride scheme, they will be offered places on car parks nearby that are to be extended.

Everybody happy, then? Hmm -- for I wonder whether this scheme has been fully thought through.

I can follow the optimistic premiss that, instead of giving up and going to other shopping centres, people will be prepared to leave their vehicles at an out-of-town car park and travel into Blackburn by bus now that the centre is so car-unfriendly. But, on match days, will all the people using the Ewood car park commandeered for the park-and-ride scheme be going shopping in the town centre?

I only ask because I'm sure more than a few football fans might think it's just the ticket that parking facilities only a stone's throw from the Rovers' ground might be had for the price of a bus fare.