A traffic warden is seeing red over motorists abusing the orange badge scheme which gives parking concessions to disabled and blind people.

Now, after a string of complaints, Shipley traffic warden Anthony Hirst is launching a campaign to get people parking in the town centre to stick to the rules.

Over the next few weeks he will be advising motorists caught contravening the rules on the correct procedures but has warned that if the abuse continues drivers will be issued with fixed-penalty notices and could even be prosecuted.

Mr Hirst said one of the main abuses was friends or relatives of orange badge holders leaving vehicles in restricted areas despite not having the disabled person with them. The badge allows the holder to park on double yellow lines, as long as they don't cause an obstruction, for up to three hours.

He said some motorists were also breaking the rules by continuing to use badges past their expiry date or failing to put a parking clock, indicating what time the vehicle was parked, on display.

And he added that others were leaving vehicles in spots where they blocked access points or caused an unnecessary obstruction.

Inspector Nigel Cawthorne, of Shipley Police, said: "It's quite obvious from the complaints we've had from road users and observations from our traffic wardens that there's a significant amount of abuse.

"We've even had complaints from other badge holders who say they haven't been able to find parking spaces because the system's being abused and that it's giving them all a bad name.

"These abuses can discredit the scheme as well as causing traffic congestion and ill-feeling from other road users.

"We're not trying to be heavy-handed but just trying to make sure that the scheme is used by the people who need it and that it doesn't fall into disrepute."

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