COUNCILLORS voted in favour of a motion calling for a review of parking at Hyndburn shopping centre.

At Hyndburn Council's full council meeting, a proposal by Cllr Sara Britcliffe called on the authority to write a letter to the owners of the Arndale Centre in Accrington and ask them to restrictions of free parking being reduced from three hours to 30 minute 'in light of the current economic climate and the need for them to play their role in supporting local businesses and residents in the recovery to CV-19'.

Ms Britcliffe, who is also Hyndburn MP, said: "This has been an issue since 2019 when Councillor Judith Addison put a motion to the council for engagement with Property Partners Management who ran the parking at Arndale.

"The people in charge of parking on site have changed to ES Parking now and 12 months on people are still having issues.

"Fines have been given out to people and it is an additional financial burden on many residents at a difficult time."

Ms Britcliffe met with ES Parking on Friday morning to discuss the effects it is having on residents and businesses.

She said: "I have spoken to the owners and they say that there has not been engagement between the Arndale and the council.

"We need to have all parties working together to move forward for one common goal. I will be asking the council have a meeting to discuss issues in Hyndburn to come to a conclusion which will help businesses and residents.

"We want to get people into our town centres to support local businesses.

"We are having families who are struggling and then they had £100 or £60 fine for parking."

The Lancashire Telegraph reported in June about the decision to reduce the free parking to 30 minutes and one shopper said the decision would be the end for Accrington: “Why are they killing our town off, it’s the final nail in the coffin – 30 minutes is not time to do anything.”

Leader of Hyndburn Council Miles Parkinson said that a covenant was placed on the Arndale for parking yet that had expired.

He said: "I am not award of the financial position of the Arndale whether they employed the car parking agents to generate income.

"But people keep coming to us in the streets and complaining about getting fines and free parking not being long enough.

"Then through word of mouth, people are not parking there so footfall in the Arndale will be down.

"It is a vicious circle. There needs to be adjustments and liaise with the council and residents and the MP to improve the situation."