A MINEHEAD fish and chip shop owner who claimed trade plummeted after his customers were "harassed" by wardens is calling on the county council to create more parking outside his business.

Sava Ajhan and his wife Kully said both they and their customers had been "intimidated" by "aggressive" wardens enforcing a single yellow line outside their business, the Bampton Street Fish Bar.

Mr Ajhan said no-one else in the street had been targeted and lodged an official complaint with Somerset County Council about the behaviour of wardens employed by the authority through a third party to enforce on-street parking in the town.

Mr Ajhan claimed the wardens had singled out his business purely because he and his family were Indian.

But an investigator employed by the county council to look into Mr Ajhan's claims of racial harassment and intimidation refused to delve any deeper on the issue of racism after concluding "the local police found there to be insufficient evidence to continue the complaint on these grounds".

Mr Ajhan said the county's response was simply not good enough: "It's an absolute whitewash and I will be taking it further.

"They didn't even interview the wardens involved, only a manager at their employer's.

"The council appears to be in a state of denial - they've failed miserably in every aspect of my complaint."

The investigator said he did not believe Mr Ajhan had been "picked on" but did conclude the wardens had been "over zealous" and had undertaken more patrols in Bampton Street than in other similar roads nearby.

The investigator said: "I do not believe that the over-patrolling was premeditated and statistics show many different officers could have been perceived to be over-patrolling Bampton Street.

"This leads me to believe that it is the unevenness between the [wardens] in applying guidance/procedures that has caused the situation and not certain individuals targeting the business and this has failed to be picked up through regular meetings.

"Therefore, I believe that through more comprehensive monitoring and a review of guidelines and how they are applied, the problem will be solved."

Mr Ajhan had collected around a dozen witness statements from fellow businesses and customers to support his claim that his shop had been singled out.

Another chip shop owner in the town wrote in support and said his customers were given a ten minutes "grace period" when picking up food, despite parking restrictions in the road outside.

Mr Ajhan said his customers had no such leeway and at one stage wardens stood outside his shop every lunchtime for days on end and, on one occasion, for at least an hour.

"The council has turned a blind eye to my complaints and it's not good enough," he said.

"We're at our wits end with it now. I'm at the point of telling the council 'see you in court'."

However, the county council has taken steps to create a parking area outside Mr Ajhan's fish bar to try and alleviate the problem.

But Mr Ajhan remains unhappy after proposals to allow around nine vehicles to park for up to 30 minutes in a 48 metres-long zone were scaled back to a two-car parking bay.

Mr Ajhan said he had been told only two people had objected to the larger parking zone, while four people had written letters in support.

A spokesman for Somerset County Council confirmed the proposal had been altered in the wake of complaints.

The spokesman said: "Objections were received to a 48 metres-long parking bay during consultation because it could make access to houses opposite quite difficult.

"In light of those objections, the council has reverted to installing a two-bay area adjacent to the fish bar which was our original solution."

The spokesman added: "We have investigated Mr Ajhan's complaint about the way parking enforcement was conducted in Bampton Street.

"As a result of our investigation we did ask NSL, the company contracted to provide civil enforcement officers, to review its working practices but we found no reason to support a claim of racial harassment."

Mr Ajhan is now hoping his local county councillor, Cllr Terry Venner, might be able to take up his case and secure a re-think on the size of the parking zone in Bampton Street.

Cllr Venner said he had met Mr Ajhan and was happy to act as a mediator between the county council and the businessman.

"I'm aware of the situation and will try to broker a meeting with all the interested parties to see if we can find some common ground," he said.