Traders see off yellow lines

SMILES better . . . Mark Harrington, Minaur Rahman and Kevin O’Rourke watch the removal of double yellow lines

VICTORIOUS traders were delighted to see double yellow lines which have plagued their businesses finally being wiped out.

Mark Harrington, of Mark Antony Kitchens, was furious when he turned up to find the restrictions had been painted down both sides of Ellen Street in February.

Oldham Council made a temporary order for a maximum of 18 months, after an application from Copley Square Ltd, to stop obstructive parking while a new Aldi store is being created on land between Ellen Street and a B&M store.

But Copley Square has rescinded the order after talks with the livid business owners.

As a result, council staff were ordered to paint over the lines.

Now the businesses want a meeting with the council and Copley Square to ensure this doesn’t happen again to other businesses.

Mr Harrington said: “I’ve worked in Oldham all my life.

“I just can’t believe this — we need unrestricted parking outside all of the buildings on this road.

“No-one was asked about it and we’ve all lost income over the last three weeks.

“When Tesco was built they came to ask local businesses how it would affect them.

“Obviously, we want the new development but not to the detriment of our own businesses. We want a meeting with the council and Copley Square.

“We don’t want to point the finger as we need to move things on, we just want to ensure that this doesn’t happen to any other businesses in Oldham.”

Minaur Rahman, of MicroLinx, said: “While I’m pleased the lines are gone, we have lost quite a lot of business.

“It will take people a while to realise that this street is back in order.

“We do need a meeting to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

“If the lines had remained there, we would have gone bust.”

Directors from Copley Square were unavailable for comment.