GUISELEY residents who feel like they're 'living in a car park' are counting the days until a permit parking scheme is introduced.

Mike Barlow says the quality of life for his neighbours in Oxford Avenue and nearby streets has been deteriorating for three years due to railway station customers leaving their cars on the road for up to 12 hours a day.

The situation has got so bad that sections of the road are now regularly impassable to larger vehicles due to double parking, and pedestrians with pushchairs or wheelchairs often can't get around parked cars.

Mr Barlow, 64, who works at home, said: "It has become pretty bad and it's getting worse.

"It's indiscriminate parking by rail users and it's every day of the week and creeping into the weekend now, too, with people leaving their cars to go shopping.

"They don't seem to care where they leave their cars and there are times when lorries can't get up the street and sit sounding their horns, thinking it's us we have to go out and say sorry, you're going to have to call the police.' "We've lived here 25 years and the problem started around three years ago, I think because parking restrictions were imposed on Netherfield Road, which also had problems, and everyone started moving their cars up here.

"We had a meeting with Councillor Graham Latty and Leeds City Highways engineer Brian Shaw, and following that Mr Shaw agreed to have a meeting with residents at my house, where he was shown various photographs highlighting the problem.

"In fact Mr Shaw couldn't get parked himself, and had to go up the street to find a space! We discussed several things but the general feeling was that we would like a residents parking scheme, and the city council is now looking at that the quicker we can get it in the better.

"But it will have to be part of a bigger, two or three pronged approach to stop them just moving to another area."

The introduction of permit parking was recently announced, along with the possibility of creating a new car park on Netherfield Road and ending long-stay parking at Morrisons, as part of a package of measures being investigated by the city council.