RESIDENTS have renewed an appeal for co-operation from students who park outside their properties after a new car park failed to materialise.

Coun Tony Dobson, ward councillor for Barnfield ward, says people living in Limefield Street, Barnfield Street and the top of Sandy Lane have made several complaints as they were unable to park outside their own houses because students at Accrington and Rossendale College parked there.

Last year Coun Dobson looked into the possibility of having parking permits issued for residents but current rules state that at least 80 per cent of parking spaces on the road must be unavailable to residents for permits to be issued.

As the problem is only in front of the college and adjoining streets it does not come under this criteria.

Coun Dobson said: "This has been a problem for at least five years and something needs to be done. There is parking available at the college but students don't use it because it is easier for them to get away at the end of the day from the streets when traffic volumes are at a peak.

"If elderly people have been out shopping they often don't have the energy to walk long distances when they get back and I even know of one resident who leaves his car on the car park when he returns from town and then moves it back to the front of his house later.

"This problem should have been eased when the new Hambledon building was built as the annex should have been pulled down and a car park created there but those plans were not carried out."

Bernard Holden, of Queen Elizabeth Crescent, said: "There are quite a lot of spaces already at the college but it has not helped matters that the old workshop annex has not been knocked down to make a new car park.

"People are getting really fed up with it."

A spokesperson for Accrington and Rossendale College said that students had been encouraged by the college to use the parking facilities provided.

He said: "Accrington and Rossendale College agreed to provide additional parking spaces as part of its planning for the new Hambledon Building. The college has not only met this commitment but exceeded it.

"We continually encourage students to use the parking facilities on college premises and not park on Sandy Lane."