A TRADER has questioned why Daniel O'Donnell 'groupies' are allowed to camp outside a Blackburn box office while shopkeepers in the town are banned from putting out A-boards.

Tailor Robert Wilson said he was amazed that the singer's fans, some of whom have set up home on the pavement outside King George's Hall to wait for tickets for his next local show to go on sale, were allowed to stay put.

A Blackburn with Darwen Council ruling prevents him and other shopkeepers from advertising their businesses on A-boards.

Mr Wilson, who has premises in Simmons Street, said: "As a small trader, I am not allowed to put an A-board out to advertise my business.

"Yet if I was a Daniel O'Donnell fan - which I am not - I could go and put a tent or a deckchair or a bivouac outside King George's Hall ticket office.

"I am amazed that these people are allowed to get away with it."

A council spokesman said: "We make a distinction between people and things which are on the public highways. One would assume that if someone was coming along the pavement whoever was queuing would see them and move out of the way. "If it became a problem the police would move them on."

The fans, who will have to wait until Saturday for tickets for Daniel's December show to go on sale, say the wait is worth every minute.

Blackburn pensioner Ada Smith, 63, had only just returned from queuing for two days in Birmingham for an October show when she set up camp with other fans outside King George's Hall ticket office on Saturday.

She'll be there, rain or shine, sleeping in a tent on the pavement, until the tickets go on sale.

"There'll be a rush later on, there's a crowd coming down from Scarborough to queue," said Ada, who is collecting for Daniel's Romanian appeal while she waits.

Janie Hints, 60, said: "People think we're mad but we will sit in the front row that night and thoroughly enjoy it."

She's arranged for a friend to take her place in the queue for a couple of days because she's going to Ireland - to see a Daniel O'Donnell show.

Council tightens up its rules on street displays

COUNCILLORS have approved a controversial tightening of rules on A-boards and street displays in Blackburn and Darwen.

A guideline allowing council officers to turn a blind eye to obstructions has been removed from Blackburn with Darwen Council's code of practice.

And a new rule aimed at tackling the problem of displays on private land was also approved.

It has also been revealed that the council's next target will be drivers who park their cars too far on to the pavement.

Labour Coun Dave Harling told members of the council's Regeneration committee: "This issue has raised a storm of protest but the way it has been reported has been very one-sided and narrow.

"The positive side of this code of practice has been lost. Not everybody has put shop displays half-way across the pavement with little thought for the public. And there has been little mention of the alternatives such as the use of above head-height signs which would effectively promote trade."

Committee chairman Coun Andy Kay, said: "We advise and cajole. Court is only a last resort. We certainly don't go in using the big stick. "But as far as I am concerned, discretion will not come into this. There will be a clearly defined set of rules."

Conservative Councillor Fred Slater criticised the decision to change the code.

He said: "Once you get in to a situation where things are in black and white you've got to realise that it is going to have to be policed.

"That will be extremely difficult but somewhere along the line there has to be discretion. We need a peaceful amicable solution."

The row between traders and Blackburn with Darwen Council over displays began when the council decided to take five traders to court earlier this year.

Blackburn and District Chamber of Trade spokesman Rita Wakeley said after the meeting: "We feel we have not had our suggestions taken on board even though we know that such policies have not worked in other towns.

"Traders remain very angry about this. Blackburn will lose its vibrancy without displays and it doesn't help in the fight to keep shoppers here instead of going to the new Dumplington Centre in Manchester or to Bolton and Preston."

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