Ludlow gridlocked by driver's double yellow parking
A driver brought Ludlow to a standstill for nearly an hour – by parking on double yellow lines and going off to do a spot of shopping.
Police were called to King Street at 1.30pm yesterday after the Rover 75, parked outside Gifts & Chocolate in King Street, stopped a coach from passing.
A Veolia waste vehicle was also stuck behind the car with traffic quickly backing up all the way down Bull Ring.
The driver returned to cheers and jeers at 2.15pm and attempted to drive off before his female companion could even shut her passenger door.
But he was quickly followed by a police officer in a van, who pulled him over in Mill Street for a ticking off.
West Mercia Police spokesman Richard Ewels said: "The incident was reported to us at about 1.50pm when a car parked on double yellow lines was obstructing traffic on the one-way street.
"A coach was unable to get through and traffic backed up for a considerable distance around the town.
"The driver, a man in his 60s and a disabled badge holder, returned to his vehicle at about 2.10pm. He was spoken to by a police officer and reported for causing an unlawful obstruction. He was not local to the area and was very apologetic and highly embarrassed."
Graham Lewis, driver of the coach, which belonged to Ellesmere-based Lakeside Coaches, had been due to pick up Weston Rhyn Good Companions, a social group for pensioners, from the town's Assembly Rooms at 1.45pm before taking them on to Ludlow Food Centre.
He said he had been marooned from 1.30pm and the group had to walk half way across town to make its own way back on the coach, with the trip eventually having to be cut short because of the delay.
