Lorry forced to stand, not deliver in parking row

On Tuesday morning a patrol car was left unattended in the “loading only” bay outside the Co-Op in Western Road, preventing a delivery lorry from gaining access and causing a tailback of disgruntled drivers trapped behind it.

A local trader who took photographs of the police vehicle, Andy Paine, said: “It caused traffic mayhem in Western Road, which is one-way only.

“The officer left the car and was later seen visiting a shop at the sea end of Sackville Road, several hundred yards away. The patrol car’s blue lights were not on, so it clearly wasn’t an emergency. It just seems there is one law for the public and another for the police.”

He added: “The police have been issuing parking tickets to motorists who don’t observe double yellow lines and waiting restrictions, yet here they were causing congestion and frustration themselves in such a way that anyone else would have been fined.

“At one point I thought the lorry driver - who was forced to make several circuits of the town centre until the police car eventually moved off - was going to come to blows with another motorist who was fed up with being stuck in a jam.”

Police reacted swiftly to the allegations placed before them and Rother district police commander, Chief Inspector Heather Keating, told the Observer: “A marked police car was illegally parked in a loading bay in Bexhill whilst an officer was on operational duty.

“He was not answering an emergency call and as such his actions are not acceptable. The officer will face internal disciplinary action in addition to being dealt with like any other member of the public in this instance.”

PICTURED: The police car blocks the lorry’s progress in Western Road