CARELESS car boot sale enthusiasts could be creating a potentially lethal traffic hazard with illegal parking every week in the Ribble Valley, claims a concerned motorist.

Cecil Hargreaves believes the Pimlico Link Road could become a death-trap as week after week drivers park their cars on the grass verges along the road while they visit the Sunday markets on the Clitheroe Auction Mart site.

The road is a clearway and any parking on it or on the grass verges is an offence.

But Mr Hargreaves says that not only are the cars blocking the road for emergency vehicles, the mud they transfer from the verges onto the road creates a slippery surface where cars, and especially motorbikes and cycles, could skid. Mr Hargreaves has recently moved to Great Harwood after living for more than 60 years in the Ribble Valley.

He worked for 14 years at Castle Cement, just along the link road and is well aware of the amount of heavy traffic both from the Ribblesdale works and the nearby Tarmac plant which uses the road every day.

He said: "I have seen up to 60 cars parked along the road while a Sunday market has been on.

"I am not objecting to the markets themselves, that is up to the auction mart management, but I think the way visitors park on the link road will lead to a tragedy one day.

"There are dozens of wagons using the road and when it has been particularly busy the road is very muddy and the verges are a mess.

"The police do everything they can and there are some signs up indicating that it is a clearway but perhaps the signs could be better placed and the motorists be more aware of the problems they are causing.

"I want something done about this before it is too late and there has been someone injured or even killed."

Inspector Les Martin from Clitheroe Police Station said: "We regularly send officers up to deal with traffic parked illegally on the link road.

Motorists should be aware that they will receive tickets for parking on the grass verges as well as the road."

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