‘Crack down on drivers parking on pavements in Ilkley' (From Wharfedale Observer)

‘Crack down on drivers parking on pavements in Ilkley'

8:39am Thursday 14th February 2013 in Local news By Amanda Greaves

Parking wardens should crack down on delivery drivers who damage pavements in Ilkley by parking on them, says a ward councillor.

Councillor Anne Hawkesworth (Ind, Ilkley) wants Bradford Council parking wardens to enforce the rules on delivery vans which, she claims, are damaging pavements around the town.

Coun Hawkesworth believes wardens should broaden their focus from cars parking in the wrong place to vehicles which are causing damage. She branded the practice of parking delivery vans on pavements as “reckless vandalism” and called for retailers to pick up the cost where delivery vehicles have damaged the pavements.

“I am calling on the Keighley Area co-ordinator to instruct parking wardens to look wider than motorists who, although parking where they shouldn’t, are not basically doing any harm,” said Coun Hawkesworth.

“Meanwhile, we have delivery vans parking on and damaging pavements around the town. It should not be tolerated, and if they persist an order for the damage should be sent to the retailers.

“There are streets in Ilkley where residents have to park half on the road, half on the pavement, quite reasonably, because if they didn’t the town would grind to a halt.

“Delivery vans parking fully on the pavement are heavier.”

She says delivery vehicles on pavements are contributing to cracked flagstones. “I want wardens instructed to dissuade this practice, which is a form of vandalism,” she said.

She has been in touch with Bradford Council officers, who have asked her if there are any specific problem areas to focus on.

Coun Hawkesworth recently hit out at Bradford Council’s highways department for not keeping a closer eye on utility companies doing work on The Grove. The central shopping street was relaid and designed to a high specification a decade ago, but Coun Hawkesworth says the repair works and the replacement of stone flags had since been done in a “slipshod” way.

Inspector Sue Sanderson, of Ilkley Neighbourhood Policing Team, said last week parking on pavements would be the subject of a series of planned action days.