Park and paint rules take gloss off job

NOT amused: Ian Thomas was forced to abandoned the painting of a shop in George Street

CHERRY-picking a place to paint ended in a parking palaver for local businessman Ian Thomas.

Mr Thomas’s hydraulic lift vehicle was hired to help spruce up the front of new business Sirf Elegance in George Street.

But no sooner had he arrived with his cherry-picker and met the painter, than a parking attendant told him he’d have to pay a hefty parking waiver or face being slapped with a ticket.

After discovering it would cost him around £70 to park, and with a fine imminent, Mr Thomas and the painter were forced to abandon the job, leaving behind a very unhappy shop-owner.

Mr Thomas, who lives in Fitton Hill, said he has worked throughout the North-West, including Manchester and Liverpool city centres, and never encountered anything like this before.

“I’ve worked all over the place for the last four years and never had a problem.

“They said I’d have to pay for three parking bays, which would be £22 each, and some double yellow lines charge. I just can’t afford to do that.

“At the end of the day the customer was only trying to improve the look of his building and we’re trying to earn a living, but Oldham Council seem to want to stop us from doing that.

“You’d think with the way things are in Oldham at the moment the council would be helping out businesses. No wonder a lot of them are moving out of the area.”

Sirf Elegance owner Hamad Mukhtar says he only opened two weeks ago and already trade is suffering because of parking restrictions.

He added: “It’s diabolical. I tried to make life easier for the council and pedestrians by hiring Ian instead of getting scaffolding, which would have caused a lot of inconvenience, and this happens.

“The parking restrictions really are a joke round here and my business is suffering, customers can’t get near. We’re just trying to earn a living.”

A spokesman for Oldham Council said: “In order to do works on a section of highway with either a cherry-picker, skip or scaffold there must firstly be a licence prior to any works commencing.

“If there are any parking restrictions, they also need a parking waiver which temporarily suspends the restrictions and there is an administration fee for a waiver.

“That is a nationwide policy and not just in Oldham.”