Car sellers in Reedley targeted by police campaign

4:40pm Friday 8th August 2008

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MOTORISTS who are trying to sell their cars on a busy main road are being targeted by a police campaign.

Councillors in Reedley have complained about drivers leaving vehicles with ‘for sale’ signs along Colne Road, outside the grounds of The Oaks Hotel.

Private motorists who leave their own vehicles on the roadside, with such notices, are not technically committing an offence under traffic legislation.

But councillors feared the volume of cars being left along the Reedley Road could mean commercial oper-ators were organising the sales.

Coun Pauline McCormack said: “Is there anything we can introd-uce, like a £50 charge for people who are parking there?”

But a meeting of Pendle Council’s Brierfield and Reedley committee were told drivers could not be fined because the road is unrestricted.

Police sergeant Matt Baines said checks had been carried out on cars parked outside The Oaks Hotel.

He confirmed the ownership of each vehicle had been established and it had been found that they belonged to private individuals.

But he added: “Every time one of my team sees a vehicle there, parked with a for sale notice, we will place a warning notice on the car, in an envelope similar to a fixed penalty notice.

“Hopefully that owner will think they will have got a ticket. The notice will explain that, while he or she may be a private individual, and is not committing an offence, we do not want them parking there.”

Coun Tonia Barton, committee chairman, said: “We wanted to be reassured that motorists were being contacted about this problem.”

The problem was highlighted on the Burnley leg of Colne Road by Queensgate councillor Darren Reynolds earlier this week.

He reported the problem to Bur-nley police and checks later reve-aled that five ‘for sale’ cars were uninsured. Coun Reynolds said similar problems were prevalent in Manchester Road and Padiham Road, Burnley.