Lorries unloading on double yellow lines outside a supermarket are making turning out of a nearby road an “accident waiting to happen”.

Paul Whiteman, who lives in St Pauls Place, just off the Hatfield Road, St Albans, has claimed that lorries arriving with deliveries for the Tesco Express store park on double yellow lines and leave him unable to see when turning right from his road.

He said: “It is always busy along there because of the Tesco and there is a mosque which holds prayers on a Friday.

“In the mornings when I leave to go to work about half seven to quarter to eight the lorries turn up to do their deliveries and park there and do their unloading.

“They pull up just outside it and park on the double yellow lines or across the parking spaces and sometimes there is another lorry on the opposite side of the road so when you come out of it you can’t see anything at all along the whole length of road to the right or any traffic coming.”

He added that although there was a back entrance to the store accessible from St Pauls Place, the lorries never used it as “there are usually too many cars and it is too tight for them”.

He went on: “The drivers see you struggling but none of them try to help you.

“Quite often I turn left and then go round the houses just because it is so dangerous turning right.

“They should either come round the back or they could have someone from the store stood at the end redirecting traffic.”

He added that a council traffic warden informed him that wardens were only required to ask a vehicle to move off double yellow lines if it was obstructing a pathway, which St Albans head of legal services, Mike Lovelady, disputed.

He said: “Parking wardens working on behalf of the council do have not have enforcement powers in relation to obstruction of the path or road.

“Where residents are concerned about the activity causing an obstruction to pedestrians or road users, they can report the matter to the police.”

He added that under parking regulations, vehicles were allowed to load and unload on single and double yellow lines “provided no obstruction is caused, the unloading and loading is continuous and visible, the time taken is appropriate for the items being delivered or collected, and the vehicle is removed once this activity is completed”.

A spokesman for Tesco said: “We have asked all the lorries that serve our Hatfield Road store to call ahead before they arrive to make sure there is space to deliver.

“We are also reviewing our delivery risk assessment to make sure all our drivers adopt the right route.”