Pharmacy blasts 'jobsworth decision' over delivery van parking fine fiasco

Mayberry Pharmacy’s delivery service was made “very difficult” when Torfaen County Borough Council last week cracked down on parking rules “without warning”.

Managing director Paul Mayberry told C+D this week (February 22) that delivery drivers had been using a spot outside the pharmacy in Pontypool, Wales, for loading and unloading drug deliveries “for 30 years”.

But when the street’s yellow lines were repainted last week, a traffic enforcement officer threatened a delivery van with an “on the spot fine”, he said.

Mr Mayberry added that the council had since informed him that the spot “was designated as a no-loading area in 2016”.

The council told him it had “turned a blind eye” for the past eight years “because the yellow lines weren't maintained” and were “fading a little bit”, he said.

“We'll have an on-the-spot fine if they catch us doing it again”, he told C+D.

A spokesperson for the council told C+D that it had previously used its “discretion” in allowing the loading and unloading of deliveries, but that this was only the case “until maintenance had been carried out”.

Vulnerable patients and drivers

As well as penalising wholesalers delivering stock to the pharmacy, the new rules have affected Mayberry Pharmacy’s delivery service too.

“We're the only pharmacy in town that offers a delivery service”, Mr Mayberry said.

He told C+D that many of his patients “rely on [his pharmacy] to deliver their medication”, meaning the pharmacy delivers “to a lot of those vulnerable patients”.

“Our delivery drivers have got a really strong bond with the people that we deliver to because we are often the only people that they see all day, or maybe all week, and they like to have a chat”, he added.

Mr Mayberry told C+D that he is also “worried for [the] safety” of his delivery drivers if they have to “park away from the building”.

“My drivers wear uniforms that identify them as pharmacy delivery drivers…because they're going to visit the most vulnerable in society who are often nervous”, he said.

“Two out of the three drivers that we've got in Pontypool are female, in highly easily identifiable pharmacy uniforms, carrying boxes potentially hundreds of meters in the dark… I've got a responsibility for their safety”, he stressed.

Our patients won’t suffer, but our operations will

“I've got no intention of charging for deliveries”, Mr Mayberry said, adding that he’s “been looking after these people for 30 years”.

“At the end of the day, they won't suffer. It's just our operations [that] will suffer”, he said.

He explained that “the only thing [the pharmacy] can do is to apply to get the area designated as a loading bay”, a process Mr Mayberry said it has already started.

In the meantime, he told C+D that Mayberry Pharmacy would “look at alternatives” like swapping delivery patients to different branches, which may mean moving “staff from the existing branch somewhere else to pick up that volume”.

“More worried about rules"

Mr Mayberry said he felt “frustrated” that after three decades of running a pharmacy with increasing financial pressure, he’s “being penalised for [what] just seems like a jobsworth decision”.

He stressed that the council repainting the yellow lines and enforcing the rules “out of the blue” has left him feeling “really powerless…with all the struggles that we've got”.

The council “seem to be more worried about the rules than looking after their community”, he added.

“I'm also absolutely determined that we won't let our customers down, we will do everything we can do to get a loading bay outside the pharmacy”, Mr Mayberry said.

A Torfaen Council spokesperson told C+D today (February 23) that its officers had previously “used their discretion and allowed the pharmacy’s vehicle to load and unload any deliveries”.

But they claimed that officers had “explained to the pharmacy this would only be the case until maintenance had been carried out” on the road.

“The double yellow kerb blips have been present at this location for many years, [but] they had become faded and barely visible,” they said.

They added that the maintenance work had now been completed and that Mayberry Pharmacy “has been informed that the blips are now clearly visible and that loading/unloading is now prohibited, and an alternative location [will] need to be found”.

The spokesperson stressed that any “requests for parking restrictions to be revoked and loading bays to be introduced can be made to the council’s highways department”.