Mayor’s parking blunder brings town to standstill
AS mayor, certain standards are expected – not least the ability to keep things running smoothly.
For Lorraine Hillier, however, it appears the message may have slipped her mind, as did the rules on where you are allowed to park.
She brought the one-way system in the town of Henley-on-Thames to a standstill this week after her ‘terrible and selfish’ parking triggered a lengthy traffic jam.
When popping into Sainsbury’s, Councillor Hillier left her Nissan Rasheen SUV in a loading bay outside the store – directly opposite a drainage lorry carrying out emergency sewer repairs.
Her parking left traffic stacked up all the way down the road when a lorry was unable to squeeze through the narrow gap left between the vehicles.
A photograph of the log jam has since been shared almost 300 times by social media users after it was uploaded to Facebook by passer-by Robert Strike.
Its caption read: ‘Please see pictures attached to name and shame Her Worship the Mayor, Miss L M Hillier of Henley. You really should know better and also have some respect for the rules and regulations of your own town.’
Mr Strike, 39, said he had been at a barber’s across the street when he saw the mayor park.
Describing her choice of parking spot as ‘terrible and selfish’, the unemployed sales executive said: ‘The lorry had been there for at least half-an-hour because I had driven past it twice as I looked for somewhere to park myself.
‘I ended up paying to leave my car in the Waitrose car park nearby – which is what the mayor should have done. She obviously believes she is above the law parking like this but she blocked the road and didn’t even apologise to the other drivers when she emerged from the shop. It is sheer arrogance.’
Mr Strike said a few cars had been able to squeeze through the gap before the lorry approached on Monday lunchtime.
He added: ‘For about four minutes everything was at a standstill. The gap she left ... was so narrow that large cars would not have been able to get through. It was simply inconsiderate.’ Councillor Hillier, 59, who was elected as mayor in May, said she had suffered ‘unnecessary abuse’ over her blunder.
She said: ‘It’s been blown out of all proportion. I just saw the loading bay and just pulled in – I didn’t notice the lorry opposite.
‘I was only in the shop three minutes but I am terribly sorry for the short delay I caused people.’
In September Henley Council published a transport study which stated as one of its key findings ‘the misuse of loading bays’.