Feeling peckish? Why not park recklessly at one of these Preston eateries

Car parked on the junction by Country Corner — Someone waiting for Country Corner to open?

For my sins I spent a quiet afternoon trawling the online comment sections of local Facebook community groups (please don’t judge me, there was a pandemic and it was raining). I noticed one topic pop up again and again. Parking.

Sadly, when people do a great job parking their cars it rarely gets discussed, so the topics tended to highlight cars blocking driveways, parents on the school run and their eternal struggle with homeowners who live nearby, and a thousand other ways to park a car so obnoxiously it’s like the driver is trying to actively unravel society.

The full range of human emotion and responses played out in the comment sections. There were some people who, with a deflated sense of resignation, accepted they’d have to push their pram on to the road as someone had parked so far on to the pavement that a garden rake with its gut sucked in couldn’t have squeezed past.

Then there were others who’d outright admit to tampering with a haphazardly parked car by deflating the tyres, pleased that it ‘solved the problem.’

Yes, the internet is a place of true extremes, so in the hopes of providing a little balance, based on my recent observations, I’d like to present the case for Preston eateries so good, dangerous parking can be excused.

Dean’s Bakers and Confectioners, Blackpool Road, Lane Ends

Car parked on the pavement outside Dean's Bakery — Dean’s at Lane Ends Pic: Google

Great selection of sweet and savoury, and people will frequently queue eight people deep to get in. Are the steak bakes and fruit tarts worth parking on double yellow lines and thus creating an impromptu lane merge on one of Preston’s busiest sections of road? A surprising number of Preston residents think absolutely yes, and with those vanilla slices who can blame them.

Note, the intrepid reporter that I am, I was going to pop out to Blackpool Road and photograph this parking in action but at the time it was absolutely pelting it down. Fortunately the image I lifted from Google Maps happens to show someone doing exactly that.

Greggs, Blackpool Road, Ashton-on-Ribble

Just 300 metres up the road from Dean’s Bakers is Greggs at Tulketh Mill Retail Park. Nevermind that there’s a free car park 40 meters from the store, those vegan sausage rolls are just flying off the shelves so to avoid disappointment, enterprising Prestonians are parking on the double yellow corner junction to save what must be… almost 40 seconds of their time.

In fairness, I can’t speak to the mindset of those who invented the hazard light system back in 1951, but I’m assuming if they’d known about Greggs’ rock solid roster of baked goods and hot drinks, they’d absolutely have been fine with people using it to flagrantly disregard road markings. So stick the blinkers on and fully absolve yourself of highway code breaches while you’re waiting for your cheese and bean melt.

Co-op, Garstang Road, Fulwood

Car parked on the pavement outside Co-op in Garstang Road — Rolling out the red carpet at the Co-op in Garstang Road

Need a quick snack or frozen ready meal? Why not visit Co-op in the former Checco’s restaurant? Well stocked and it’s still got that luscious new store smell.

Again, there is a car park directly behind it but… Why not simply cut across four lanes of traffic to park fully on the pavement – you’ll be able to stride right in like you’re attending a red carpet event, you’ll also delay anyone with mobility issues from getting in so less chance of a wait at the checkout.

Country Corner, Brackenbury Road, Fulwood

Purveyor of fine breakfast fry-ups and previously a favourite amongst bleary-eyed teens on their way to school. This Brackenbury Road cafe does a mean cherry slice but is located on a hilly corner of a high traffic volume junction.

Sadly your vehicle isn’t transparent but making other drivers pull out blindly on to a busy road is just the thing to shake off the cobwebs when they’re on the school run, so park on the corner and pay no mind to how expansive your vehicle is.

I’m sure I’ve missed a few, what restaurants and bakeries do you know that are so darn good, you can overlook outright selfish or dangerous parking?

Of course, there might be some who aren’t convinced that any snacking, no matter how delicious, justifies such a cavalier attitude to parking, in those cases you could always let Lancashire County Council know.

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