A Merseyside council has responded after complaints were made about a 'belittling and dismissive' response to a member of the public raising concerns about the parking of a private hire driver.
An image was shared on social media of a private hire car - licensed by Sefton Council - parking in Vernon Street in Liverpool city centre on Friday May 12.
The image shows the private hire vehicle parked halfway across the pavement, with the other half of the car on double yellow lines on the road. Two people can be seen standing near the car while another appears to be getting out of it.
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The picture was shared by the MerseyRoads twitter account, which regularly shares examples of bad parking and driving issues around the region. The account included the caption: "Drivers these days have a permanent case of me first syndrome."
Those behind the account then raised the matter with Sefton Council and shared the response they received from the council's licensing department.
The response stated: "Thank you for bringing this to our attention, however I fail to see how it is causing an inconvenience and safety hazard to an empty street. The ONLY pedestrians anywhere near the vehicle are the passengers getting out.
"The fact that you also stopped on the street to take the photograph, could also be considered an obstruction. I'm sure you wouldn't expect the driver to drop passengers 100s of yards away from their chosen destination."
Sharing the response they received, the MerseyRoads account said: "Stellar response. Driving onto the footpath is a criminal offence."
Others described the comments from the licensing team as "belittling and dismissive."
Responding to questions from the ECHO, a Sefton Council spokesperson said: "Having reviewed the email response, we acknowledge that this isn’t the standard of response that we would expect from our colleagues, and as such have taken this as an opportunity to remind the team of their customer service training, and we will ensure that refresher training is provided to those colleagues who may need it."
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