The shops back onto a vacant block of council-owned land.

Staff said that on mornings at least once a week they would find the skeleton of another car that had been dumped overnight and torched.

The staff said the cars had been appearing for about six months.

``It doesn't look good for business,'' PJ from Amber Tiles said.

``The cops won't do anything it's probably not a big enough crime but if you staked the area out for a week you'd catch them.''

Anna Vartuli, from the pharmacy on the corner of the block, said her biggest concern was her employer losing thousands of dollars' worth of stock if a fire spread to the building.

A woman, 86, who did not want to be named, lives near the car park, with only a timber fence separating her kitchen window from the car park. When the cars are set on fire, usually around midnight, she frets for her life.

``It sounds like a bomb going off,'' she said. ``It starts off popping. The first time I didn't know what was going on. I was so upset.''

Liverpool police crime manager Andy Richmond said cars could be set on fire for insurance fraud purposes or to destroy a stolen car used in a crime.

If police could identify the car, they would contact the owner to arrange removal of the car. ``If it is unrecognisable we generally contact the council and they would come and take it away,'' he said.