A PASSER-BY has spotted this badly parked Bradford Council van, just days after Council bosses spoke out about the menace of drivers parking on pavements.

Gavin Heaton, of Bradford, took photos of the van after spotting it on Thursday outside City Hall.

It was parked on the pavement, on double yellow lines in a no-loading area.

Mr Heaton, who works as a courier, said: “I pulled up to do a delivery at quarter to 12 and thought if it’s still there when I get back, I’m doing a photo of it.”

He then posted the pictures onto Twitter.

But Bradford Council said the van was authorised to park on double-yellows.

A spokesman said: “This van is used to unload heavy items into City Hall and has a yellow line waiver which means it is permitted to park on double yellow lines if there is no alternative parking near City Hall.

“We agree that it was inappropriate for the vehicle to be parked partially on the kerb stones and we will raise this with our drivers at the earliest opportunity.”

On Tuesday, councillors had heavily criticised motorists who park on pavements, as this caused an obstruction to people with disabilities or families with prams or buggies.

The meeting of the Full Council was in the process of banning advertising A-boards from pavements on accessibility grounds, but many councillors had said that vehicles parked on the pavement caused just as much of a hazard to people with wheelchairs or parents with pushchairs.

The Council leader, Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, had told the meeting that the Council’s Executive had recently been shown photos of vehicles parked on pavements, posing a hazard.

She said: “At Executive we saw the photographs, big 4x4 vehicles parked on pavements, which is unacceptable.

“Obviously, not only is it blocking the pavement, it’s also damaging the pavement, can I say as well.

“They are not fit for people to park on, they will damage what’s there.”

One of the disability campaigners who has been leading the fight against pavement obstructions, Paul Robinson of the Holme Wood Visually Impaired Persons (VIP) Group, had been there to hear the debate.

Yesterday, he said it was “not good” that a Council van had been spotted parked on the pavement, as this kind of parking posed a real problem to people with disabilities.

He said: “They should definitely be leading by example.

“I think drivers in general often don’t think about it. They park on the footpath to be out of the way of the road. It’s madness. It’s not giving consideration to the footpath at all.”

Mr Robinson said he thought large organisations had a responsibility to tell their staff not to park on pavements and avoid causing an obstruction for pedestrians.