WORKMEN resurfacing streets for a council had parking tickets put on their van and digger.

The team working for civil engineers J Hopkins were contracted to carry out the work by Bury Council in the town centre.

The workmen had been resurfacing back streets in the Cecil Street area before moving the vehicles into Cecil Street so they could finish the job.

The van and digger were parked opposite the Mosses Centre, mounting the kerb, with cones in the road to ensure they were not an obstruction.

But NCP wardens, who enforce the council's parking policy, put tickets on the vehicles.

Road surfacer Jim McGuire, aged 45, said: "We have been surfacing several back streets and had nowhere to leave the vehicles, so we parked them halfway up the kerb.

"We were getting on with our work, when a warden came and gave us the tickets. All he said was that we were breaking the law. I would have just moved the vehicles if he had asked, but he just gave us the tickets.

"I would understand if we were blocking the traffic, but we weren't. The vehicles were parked mostly on the kerb, but with enough space for people to walk past.

"How are we supposed to do our work? We're contracted to Bury Council, so they'll probably have to pay the fines anyway."

But the council said that although the workmen had a parking exemption to carry out the work, they did not follow regulations and would have to pay the fines.

A spokesman said: "The photographs taken by the parking attendant do not show any workmen next to or near to the vehicles and therefore the attendant was correct to issue parking tickets."