CONFUSING car parking spaces are causing chaos for shoppers and businesses in Little Lever.

Drivers have been hit with fines for using what looks like two ordinary spaces on the car park at the back of the precinct in Fletcher Street.

Even though the area is faintly marked out with white paint as two spaces, the asphalt is part of the pavement— a council-owned highway.

Furious drivers claim the fines are unfair because of the confusing lines and layout of the car park.

Now the council has agreed to suspend parking enforcement on the two bays “as a gesture of goodwill”

until the owner of the car park restores the pavement boundary.

Miller Ltd — the Gibraltar-based company that owns the car park — has been given 21 days to remove the white lines. If they fail to do so, the council will carry out the work.

Kelly Powers, who owns Bolton Windows in Little Lever, said: “A lot of shop-owners have been caught out by the spaces. I was issued a fine last week for parking there and I know at least eight other people who have too. It just looks like an ordinary parking space — you can see the white lines. I’ve written to the council to say it was not acceptable, but they’ve just emailed me back to say I have to pay it.

“I’m disgusted that the council is making money out of the public like this.”

But the council says it is Miller’s responsibility to make their boundaries clear.

A council spokesman said: “Motorists have been parking on the footpath, which is illegal, and we are taking action to resolve the matter.

“In the meantime we have suspended parking enforcement on these bays as a gesture of goodwill.

“It is frustrating that we can’t immediately resolve this issue, but we have to follow this legal process first before we can take action.”

No one from Miller Ltd or their Londonbased agents, Winex Services Ltd, was available to comment.