For the second time in three years, an inspector has ordered vehicles to be parked on Kendall Street rather than off the roadway.

The action has raised crash fears as parking on the road narrows the route for trucks going to the transfer station and other sites in the east Wodonga industrial hub.

“It’s nonsense,” the owner of Fatal Finish Detailing Jamie Allen said.

“It’s turned the street into one lane and it’s just a matter of time before there’s an accident.”

C & T Automotive owner Trevor Killalea said the inspector had told him he was acting on a complaint.

“It’s plain stupid,” he said.

“It should be no parking along the street because it’s so busy.

“He told us if we’re unhappy we should be parking up on Osburn Street (at the entrance to Kendall Street).”

The crackdown occurred on Tuesday afternoon with staff of Wodonga Switchboard Manufacturers finding infringement notes on their vehicles’ windscreens.

They stated they were warnings for being “stopped on a nature strip”.

Electrician Peter Tenison said it was “just crazy” that “some idiot” was “telling you what to do” when a car may be over a line by 60 centimetres.

His boss Peter Russell said the council needed to be consistent after a crackdown in February 2015 was overturned after publicity.

Arnold’s Fruit Market general manager Ben Arnold said he phoned the council on Wednesday to complain.

“They hung up on me,” he said.

“I said ‘why are these cars parked on the street?’ and she said ‘it’s not illegal’.

“I said ‘are you going to widen the road and she just treated me like an idiot and said ‘I’ll put you on to the engineering department if you want the road widened’.”

The council defended its action, saying it had “a legal obligation” to enforce road safety rules from 2009.

A spokeswoman added: “The council has no plans to widen Kendall Street or provide additional parking areas within the nature strip.

“Requests to construct parking within the nature strip will be considered on a case-by-case basis.”