Ross Lidbetter 

ross.lidbetter@essnmedia.co.uk

COUNCIL bosses have ticked off their own staff after a recycling truck was caught parked on double yellow lines.

The vehicle was photographed in Churchill Road, South Croydon, on Tuesday at around 8.30am.

Another truck was spotted further up the street, near the corner of Brighton Road, on a single yellow line.

It was snapped by Melody Townsend, who appeared in the Advertiser last week complaining about a ticket she had been given which she felt was unjustified.

Now the 38-year-old has accused the council of adopting double standards.

"I'm absolutely disgusted and I've reported it to the council," she said.

"I think the whole system is wrong. So the council is allowed to park on a double yellow line, but as soon as we do it then we are given a ticket?"

Ms Townsend stopped to take the photos as she drove her son Harrison to school.

She says it is not the first time that she has spotted employees of the council ignoring council rules.

"I've seen some of them park up and then go into the cafe," she claimed.

"There seem to be council vehicles parked on double yellow lines every single morning and this has been going on since November."

Ms Townsend is appealing against a fine she was handed for parking on a dropped kerb in Mayfield Road, Sanderstead.

She insists she had been given permission to park there but the council says it received a complaint from the resident whose drive she was blocking which led to the ticket.

Her photographs of the vehicle parked on the double yellow lines are not the first example of readers capturing council employees breaking their own rules.

Last September a traffic warden was photographed stopping on a double yellow line to inspect a car.

And in May 2009 council parking spies were blasted as hypocrites after their car with a CCTV camera attached to the roof was photographed parked on a double yellow line.

Its job was to try to catch drivers illegally parked on double yellow lines.

The May picture prompted the council's highways chief Phil Thomas to declare: "It's not acceptable for our staff to be parking on double yellow lines when we ask the public not to do it themselves."

This week a spokesman for Croydon Council said that had traffic wardens spotted the offending vehicle it would have been issued with a ticket like anyone else.

He added: "The vehicle belongs to Veolia, the council's waste contractor.

"The matter will be brought to the attention of local management, with a stern reminder that anybody working on behalf of the council is expected to observe the same parking restrictions that apply to other motorists."