BUILDING work to improve a high street has made a disabled driver decide to shop somewhere else.

A £1m three-year improvement project is under way at the southern end of Bromley High Street to improve pavements and reduce congestion.

This includes widening the pavements to create more space for people waiting for buses, while allowing enough room for pedestrians, buggies and wheelchairs.

But this did not help Anna-Louise Humphreys when she tried to park in a disabled space near Habitat because the contractor carrying out the work had put a skip and piles of bricks in the spaces.

The rheumatoid arthritis sufferer, who has two artificial hips and is waiting to have her knee joints replaced, was unable to find any suitable spaces and decided to go home.

She thinks the council should either stop the builder from leaving equipment in the bays or temporarily turn some of the pay-and-display spaces into parking spots for blue badge holders.

The 36-year-old said: "I live in Biggin Hill so when I take into account the time it took for me to get from there to Bromley and the time to try and get a parking space, I might as well have just gone to Lakeside in Essex.

"I have a limited walking distance and was quite disgusted to find all the disabled bays beside Habitat and in the next road beside TK Maxx are being used as dumping grounds."

The mother-of-one added: "The council wants to encourage more shoppers to Bromley but it is totally excluding people like myself."

Portfolio holder for environment and leisure Councillor Colin Smith said: "The current works will be completed soon.

"There are numerous other places to park and we are sorry the driver couldn't find one to park in.

"By displaying the disabled parking badge, a driver could park in pay-and-display bays.

"Also, by corrrecty displaying the badge and clock, they could park on single or even double yellow lines."