A CRICKET club president has criticised residents who got parking wardens to ticket the cars of fans during a game.

As the Padiham faithful watched their cricket team beat Great Harwood on Saturday afternoon, traffic wardens issued fixed penalty notices to cars left on double yellow lines in Arbory Drive and Huntroyde Avenue.

The club said residents reported the parking problem to the local authority after growing tired of cricket fans using their streets to leave their vehicles.

But Brian Shirtcliffe, president of the club said: “It is really not good for relations and the truth is that none of the cars were parked opposite the driveways.

“The club has been here longer than the houses so it's not right that they should be making our lives difficult.

"The residents have told me that they contacted the borough council and the county council to send traffic wardens out to the streets by the club specially at 2pm.

"They booked cars for the first time.

“If people park on yellow lines they can be prosecuted, but this has never happened before and those rules are often relaxed on quiet cul-de-sacs.”

Brian said that though the club has an official car park, it was often full if the football team was playing at home at the same time.

Around 250 people attended the game on Saturday and half an hour into the match, two traffic wardens arrived.

Back in January residents won a battle to extend double yellow lines on adjacent streets, despite efforts from club officials to prevent it.

One eyewitness claimed a traffic warden said they had been told to attend the area at 2pm, half an hour after the game started, to catch as many cars as possible.