RESIDENTS are demanding urgent action over parking problems outside a Blackburn mosque and community centre which they claim makes their lives a misery.

They say that most weekends hundreds of cars fill Newton Street, Dalton Close and Billing Street as guests attend gatherings in Masjid-e-Rizwan mosque and the Cutchi Muslim Association community centre.

There are no car parking facilities and the vehicles fill the streets -- restricting access to drives and homes in the area where some disabled residents live.

But more than 20 families, increasingly annoyed over safety concerns, are joining forces to get something done. They claim double yellow lines are being ignored.

The police say they have attended the street nine times since the beginning of the year to issue fixed penalty parking fines.

Blackburn with Darwen Council says it "cannot resolve" the problem, which has been on-going for ten years.

But a petition and plan-of-action are now being formulated by the residents in a bid to produce some positive results.

They claim that phone calls to the police and Blackburn with Darwen Council have not been productive.

Judith Smith, 29, lives with her disabled partner Philip Clifton in Newton Street. She is angry about noise problems which she claims wake her six-year-old daughter.

"With parking problems and noise this is not a good place to live any more. We are all at the end of the line" she said.

"My partner Philip is disabled after losing a leg in a work accident. Once his car was blocked and he could not get out to bring us fresh milk and bread."

Dawn Johnson, 30, of Newton Street said she could not access her drive on Sunday between midday and 3pm.

The mother-of-two said: "The situation has got out of control and is now an horrendous problem. None of us knows what to do now after trying with the council, police and the Space Residents Association."

Ibrahim Masters, chairman of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, said there were "problems with parking" but that gatherings at prayer time were not the cause.

"Weddings are the more likely cause of the problem. I cannot believe that the road gets blocked when the council has already put bollards on one side of the road but there are often large numbers of guests."

Insp Joanne Lightbown said: "We are aware of the problems on this street and increasing the patrols by traffic wardens to the area.

"For middle and long term solutions we are liaising with the people at the mosque with a view to educating them on making provisions for parking elsewhere."

Andy Kay, Executive Member for Regeneration at Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: "This has been an ongoing problem for about ten years and members, officers and the police have all been involved to try and achieve a satisfactory outcome. But unfortunately we cannot resolve it to the satisfaction of all the residents involved.

"The problem is that any parking restrictions we put in place would also impact on residents and affect them for the 90 per cent of the time when there isn't a problem.

"We could put residents only parking restrictions in place but this would simply transfer the problem to other neighbouring streets since cars arrive for weddings from all over the country."