LANCASHIRE'S crackdown on illegal parking has been branded a farce after a bus driver had a ticket slapped on his vehicle while parked at a bus stop.

Council bosses today defended their actions and insisted the parking warden was within his rights to issue the ticket because the bus stop was only temporary and should not be in use.

But they admitted they could have created confusion by failing to remove the bus stop.

The driver was issued with a £30 fine after stopping in Parker Lane, Burnley, shortly after 2pm on Friday.

The bus stop is on a road with double yellow lines, but a sign exempts buses from the no-stopping rule - although the bus stop is not on any designated routes.

However the bus was parked up at the stop while the driver was waiting to begin his route and there were no passengers on board at the time.

A boss at Burnley-based bus operator Northern Blue today slammed the warden's action saying it was parking enforcement gone mad.

The incident is the latest in a catalogue of criticisms levelled at the 90 county council-employed wardens who took over enforcement of traffic regulations from the police in September.

Mike Robinson, Northern Blue's company secretary, said: "This is ridiculous. It seems like an officious attendant who is working in a system with teething problems. We will be taking this up with the local authority to see if we can get it rescinded."

It has been revealed the wardens are set to issue 150,000 tickets in their first year, although bosses of the scheme deny staff are on commission. The service is run by Lancashire County Council using staff from car parking firm NCP, but local authorities act as agents for the county.

Blackburn with Darwen is a unitary authority which employs its own wardens.

Kevin Delaney, spokesman for traffic pressure group the RAC Foundation, said: "Things like this make the local authority look stupid and give decriminalised parking a bad name."

A spokesman for Burnley Council said: "The bus stop and sign were temporary and should not be there, but we recognise the confusion they could have caused and will take them down as soon as we can."