A ward councillor claims grass verges churned up by parked cars are turning some of Otley's main housing areas into eyesores.

The Lord Mayor of Leeds, Councillor Graham Kirkland (Lib Dem, Otley and Wharfedale) is calling on the City Council to take urgent action over verges throughout the town by replacing the grass with paving.

He said the problem was particularly bad around Chippendale Rise and Bradford Road. Residents in those areas of Otley had raised concerns with him over the problem, he added.

"The Council has provided other areas of the city with neatly paved parking areas to replace grass verges.

"But here in Otley we have been left with churned-up verges that are little more than raw material for mud pies," he said.

Coun Kirkland has now written to the director of highways at Leeds City Council urging action to be taken before the state of the verges deteriorates further during the winter weather.

"I have asked the highways department to take steps to stop cars, vans and lorries churning up the grass and to look into replacing appropriate sections with tarmac or brick paving," he said.

But he added he was not confident of a swift response to his plea, claiming that Otley missed out on similar improvements made in other parts of the city.

"Otley does not seem to rate the same priority as areas like Middleton, Beeston or Burley do with Leeds," he added.

However a spokesman for the City Council denied that certain areas were given preference.

She said: "Parking on grass verges is a city-wide problem.

"The highways department has looked at this problem on a number of occasions, but, unfortunately, it has not proved possible to identify resources to replace all the city's grass verges at once.

"Grass verges are, however, being replaced as part of a package where general improvement works are carried out."

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