Bury Council said a supermarket in Ramsbottom has unjustly imposed parking restrictions in its customer car park.

The council confirmed on Wednesday that it had contacted Tesco regarding signage displayed at its store on Irwell Street, which enforces a 90-minute maximum stay on users of its car park.

The local authority confirmed that the land used by the supermarket for its car park is leased to the company by the council but that the lease did not give provision for the store to impose restrictions.

The signs impose one-and-a-half-hour maximum stay in its car park between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Friday and 8am to 4pm on Sundays.

The council has asked Tesco to remove the signs, but according to residents they currently remain in place.

The Bolton News: The Ramsbottom Tesco storeThe Ramsbottom Tesco store

Sandra Walsh, owner of Station Garage in Ramsbottom, raised the issue with the council in February.

In a post on the business’s Facebook page, Sandra said she was pleased the council had acted on the problem.

She said: “Back in February, we contacted Bury Council because we believed the car park immediately in front of Tesco was council-owned land.

“As such, Tesco would not have the right to introduce parking restrictions on land they did not own.

"We spoke to Tesco’s manager who advised us that not only were Bury Council aware of this, but they had actually agreed to it.

“We have been liaising with the council over the past few months and they have now confirmed that Bury Council do indeed own the land, they have not been approached by Tesco with regards to any changes to the car park.

"Bury Council’s property services have asked for these signs to be removed and are following up as this has not yet happened.

“We are so pleased to have pushed this and hope this will be a help to all local residents and businesses who have found this incredibly frustrating - ourselves included.

“We’d probably recommend adhering to the 90 minute restriction until the signs are removed as the private company who issue tickets probably won’t care.”

Commenting on the restrictions, a council spokesperson said: “We have leased this land to Tesco Ramsbottom since 1988.

"There is no provision in the lease for Tesco to impose parking restrictions, nor did Tesco inform us they were intending to do this.

“We have therefore asked them to remove the signs as soon as possible, as this car park is intended to benefit all businesses in Ramsbottom.”

Tesco has been contacted for comment.