RESIDENTS who are getting booked for parking in front of their own homes packed out a council committee meeting to launch a united campaign.

Neighbours in Charnock Street, off Turpin Green Lane, Leyland, are calling for a free residents parking scheme to operate in their street.

At a Leyland Area East committee on Monday the householders turned out in force to put their case to councillors.

They want the street's daytime waiting restrictions and limited waiting signs scrapped, so that they don't be booked by the traffic warden if their cars are parked in the same place for more than an hour.

And they fear that the planned reduction of car parking facilities behind Rimmers, in Chapel Brow, and the relocation of Leyland Market, to Ecroyd Street, off Hough Lane, will make matters worse. Resident Bev Doidge, who has lived in Charnock Street for 22 years, said: "The parking restrictions were put down when Leyland Motors was here and it was an industrial town. But things have changed now and there's no need for them anymore.

"The other day I'd moved my car so many times I had to think where I had parked it. It's crazy.

"We used to have a traffic warden who would turn a blind eye to residents' cars but the new person books us all the time. One resident who is disabled, but cannot get an orange sticker, has been issued with eight tickets.

"We keep getting told to put our cars in the car park at Centurion Way, but it's not convenient. And I object to having to pay the council £25 a year to park outside our homes.

At the meeting councillor Dennis Lewis said: "I regret that there is a charge of £25, but it is to cover the administrative costs of a scheme.

"Clearly the residents think that the traffic warden is booking every car in the street and I have had complaints about this.

"But people's lives are not going to be blighted if they cannot park outside their homes."

Councillors were told that street alterations are classed as a Lancashire County Council traffic regulation order and would take six months to revoke.

They recommended that there should be an evenings-only parking scheme and approved the matter subject to clarification.