HAVING read in the Citizen (March 4) about the so-called 'parking purge' instigated by the highways chairman Inspector Brian Horrocks, I'm afraid to say that this purge will not get off the ground - because of the problems enforcing it.

I can quote instances of cars being parked on double yellow lines - on corners - that police cars pass every day.

Inspector Horrocks should first ensure that the police carry out their basic policing tasks as an ongoing daily policy.

The picture in your feature shows a car parked on double yellow lines. But it is the articulated lorries and other commercial vehicles which do the most damage, and it is these the highway department should be looking at.

I thought that articulated lorries should be garaged in a 'secure park' overnight!

Instead we have all manner of heavy vehicles parked overnight all over Blackpool, which are all prone to vandalism.

I wonder if the insurers would pay out in those circumstances?

If they took the trouble to walk around the area of central Blackpool between the Oxford and the Welcome Hotel they would see transporters loaded with cars parked not only on yellow lines, but on the footpath.

These transporters are parked not just overnight but during the day alongside Kwik Save and MFI in side streets off Vicarage Lane.

It seems that the drivers of these vehicles can park just about anywhere they want as long as it doesn't cause any inconvenience to themselves.

I would ask Blackpool councillors to consider passing a by-law prohibiting any commercial vehicle to be garaged off road at night - then the pedestrian would have the pavement as intended!

Concerned for Blackpool.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.