RESIDENTS in a Nelson street have won their fight to get parking restrictions lifted outside their homes.

Nelson Committee has voted to spend £20,000 on narrowing the pavements on Lomeshaye Road by 40cm on each side so residents can park their cars without hindering the flow of traffic.

Resident Waseem Choudry said: "I've lived here over 20 years and it's deteriorated so much that the residents can't bear the parking restrictions any more.

"We're having to park far away from our homes and the space we have to park is not enough to allow all the cars. Many of us are caring for disabled family members who are struggling to walk from streets away to our homes.

"We have had a look at the problems and found some solutions and one is that the pavement should be shortened on either side."

Councillors, firefighters and highways officers held a meeting with residents last month to thrash out the problems.

Nelson Committee agreed the issue had rumbled on for many years and needed sorting out but members debated who should have responsibility for the scheme.

Coun Mahboob Ahmed argued Whitefield Regeneration Partnership should look at the issue as part of its efforts to revamp the area and that Lancashire County Council should fund the work. But Coun Mohammed Iqbal said Nelson Committee should take the initiative and feared Lancashire County Council would not support the scheme because it would not reduce accidents.

Coun Jamil Munir said: "These residents have had a lot of problems over the years. I am minded to go for a decision that we should do something now, not tomorrow."