Finding the mayor’s official car parked in a disabled space raised the eyebrows of one passer-by.

Barking and Dagenham Post: The council claimed the car was parked on private land in a space allocated by the organisersThe council claimed the car was parked on private land in a space allocated by the organisers (Image: Archant)

Peter Drew, 42, snapped the distinctive black Ford saloon with white crest parked in what he claimed was one of only three disabled bays as Mayor Cllr Anthony Ramsay’s driver sat waiting.

The mayor was visiting a St George’s Day Parade and service run by the Barking and Dagenham District Scouts at the newly built Riverside School, Barking, on Sunday.

A council spokesman said: “The mayor’s official car was parked in a space reserved for it by the organisers and was on private land.”

Peter, of Bonham Road, Dagenham, whose father Noel, 70, was a disabled blue badge holder, said: “The mayor is clearly not disabled and no-one in his party was disabled so he shouldn’t have been parked there.

“Regardless of whether it is private land or not, morally it isn’t right.”