THEY have booked delivery vehicles, buses and even a police car for parking on double yellow lines.

But now it has been revealed parking war-dens are instructed to turn a blind eye to some Lancashire County Council vehicles when they are on "official business".

And it has left critics outraged by the county council's "hypocrisy".

The policy emerged after Colin Bury, an estate agent with Duckworths, St James' Street, Accrington, photographed a council library van on double yellow lines.

Mr Bury is refusing to pay four tickets he has got due to his "outrage" at the "unfair system".

Mr Bury said: "This van parks there regularly for hours on end.

"I have watched them park up and put their feet up, have their lunch and read the newspaper.

"I can't even load outside the shop without getting a ticket on my car."

Hyndburn Borough Council bosses want to pull out of the Parkwise scheme as they feel wardens put people off visiting town centres. But the council is contracted to it for another two years. Council leader Peter Britcliffe said the policy needed to be investigated.

He said: "The county council is the main beneficiary of Parkwise and they seem to be taking advantage of it now the other way.

"Lancashire County Council vehicles should abide by the same rules as everyone else and this would highlight the hypocrisy of the system."

Fine-buster Neil Herron, 44, has waged war against decrim-inalised parking enforcement across the country. He said: "Parking enforcement is supposed to be there to maintain the flow of traffic so if they are parking there the argument falls down."

County Councillor Tony Martin, cabinet member in charge of Parkwise, said he expected wardens to use "common sense" when deciding whether county vehicles were on "official business".

He said: "We need to check what this library van was doing there. If it was on official business that is acceptable.

"But if they sat there with their feet up having their lunch that is not."

WARDENS HAVE GIVEN A TICKET TO

  • A bus parked at a stop in Parker Lane, Burnley (November 2004).
  • A police car parked on double yellow lines which had been left while officers hunted a thief in Burnley town centre (also 2004).
  • Allen Wheatley, after he displayed his disabled badge upside down while parked in a disabled bay in Yorkshire Street, Burnley (2005)
  • Fundraising Santa Andrew Bridge, of Accrington, who parked on a single yellow line while depositing £3,500 of coins at Barclays in Haslingden. In January Parkwise quashed the ticket.