POST Office workers have been blasted for parking vans ‘dangerously’ in Darwen town centre’s busiest road.
Residents are worried someone will be killed or seriously injured as they try to navigate their way around the vans parked on double yellow lanes and on the pavement outside the town’s main post office in The Circus.
Royal Mail bosses say it is necessary to park the vans outside the building temporarily as staff load and unload deliveries.
Concerned resident Russell Rickard said: “That is a bad bend with double yellow lines, and yet every day I see Post Office vans parked there, obstructing the way. It’s getting beyond a joke – it’s so blatant.
“It’s by a busy pedestrian crossing and pavement and is forcing people to walk into the road and someone’s going to end up getting squashed.
“My two nephews walk that way to school in the morning and I’m concerned about their safety.”
Sunnyhurst Coun Dave Smith said concerns had also been raised with him about Post Office vans taking up shopper parking spaces in nearby Borough Road.
He said: “I don’t know where all the vans have come from, we never used to have these problems. The vans need to be parked somewhere else if they are causing danger and inconvenience.”
The matter is to go before Blackburn with Darwen Council’s planning and highways committee next week, where it is recommended members impose a one-hour restriction in Borough Road.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “Our staff always aim to park their vehicles safely and to minimise the disruption to other road users and pedestrians.
“It is necessary to sometimes park the vehicles directly outside Darwen Delivery Office for short periods of time whilst they are loaded and unloaded. Our staff aim to carry out this work as quickly as possible to minimise the disruption.”
New equipment such as trolleys and special vans has been introduced recently in Darwen to cope with heavy deliveries.
