Staff from Maidstone council's parks department parked their flat-bed truck completely on the pavement while mowing the grass in a neighbouring play area.

The vehicle totally blocked the pavement, forcing pedestrians into the road, and for no good reason, as the road was almost deserted at the time..

The incident happened on Tuesday morning last week.

A resident, who complained to the council, said: "It wasn't even as if it was just while they were off-loading.

"It was left there the whole time while they went around the play area on a motorised mower."

A council spokesman said: "Unfortunately, last week during Maidstone Borough Council regular maintenance of the council-owned grassed areas, a council vehicle parked on the Dickens Road footway.

"We would like to apologise for any inconvenience this caused to the residents of Dickens Road and offer reassurance that this is not common practice and the issue has been addressed to the relevant team.

"We have now applied a number of new operational working practices and are confident this will not happen again."