Council van parked in disabled parking bay

Council catering van misusing a disabled parking bay at the Phoenix Centre

The new Phoenix Centre in Heywood has disabled parking bays close to the door, for use of course by disabled people, however, yesterday, as well as a number of vehicles without disabled badges parked in the disabled bays, there was also a council catering van.

Asked to comment on Council employees misusing disabled bays, a spokesman for the Council said: “We will be reminding all our catering van drivers about the importance of observing disabled bays.

"Often when delivering food we need to temporarily park as close as possible to an entrance, and the vehicle is moved minutes later. For some buildings, vehicles have dispensation passes for use when works or services are being carried out close to premises. These passes are only used where the vehicle needs to park as close as possible to the premises and where alternative parking is not available.” 

“In this particular instance we had no justifiable reason for parking in the space and our staff will be warned about this behaviour, which is unacceptable. All employees are advised with regard to their responsibilities when parking their vehicle and should observe these at all times. Our officers aim to ensure that designated disabled parking areas are used only by people displaying a valid blue badge. If they see a vehicle parked in contravention of the restriction in place, a penalty charge notice will be issued.”

Heywood Councillor Colin Lambert said: "There is a constant problem at the Phoenix Centre with people without blue badges parking in the disabled bays and the Council should take action to stop it happening."