COUNCIL bosses have agreed to scrap parking tickets issued to two blood transfusion service vans as they waited outside a blood donor session.

A Bradford Council warden stuck penalty charge notices on two NHS Blood and Transplant service vans in a limited parking area outside Ilkley's King's Hall and Winter Garden, Station Road last Tuesday (July 22).

Regular blood donors who attend the well-supported sessions run by the service in Ilkley were angered by the fines.

"It's ridiculous," said one donor. "They've been coming here for years."

But the Council says it will drop the fines and instead discuss parking arrangements with the lifesaving service, which collects almost 2 million blood donations a year nationally.

Bradford Council's interim Assistant Director for Neighbourhoods and Customer Services, Ian Day, said: "We are speaking to the Blood Transfusion Service about their future parking needs and in the meantime we will cancel the Penalty Charge Notices."

A spokesman from NHS Blood and Transplant said: "Our vans carry a lot of equipment to and from blood donor sessions. After unloading our equipment for these sessions we ensure that our vans are responsibly parked in safe locations and we make sure that we do not inconvenience the public.

She added: "Following a session at the Kings Hall and Winter Gardens, Bradford, two of our blood donation vehicles were issued with parking tickets. We have spoken to Bradford City Council and they have kindly agreed to waive the fees. We have also agreed to put measures in place to prevent this from happening again.

"We look forward to seeing our local donors at our upcoming sessions at the Kings Hall and Winter Gardens. "

The next blood donor session is due to take place in Ilkley on September 9.