THE boss of the National Railway Museum has voiced his concerns about Royal Mail lorries posing a danger to the public.

Andrew Scott was shocked when he saw a large articulated lorry belonging to Royal Mail parked on the pavement in Leeman Road, York, on a busy Saturday lunchtime.

He said the driver of the lorry appeared to have experienced difficulty entering the Royal Mail sorting office on Leeman Road, so had left the vehicle on the footpath.

Mr Scott, who insisted he was talking as a concerned York resident rather than as the director of the National Railway Museum, said: "It was chaos and highly dangerous."

He said that pedestrians, including many young families with pushchairs, had been forced to walk in the road to get around the lorry, which was parked close to a bend.

He said: "As far as I can see, the recent announcement that long distance mail haulage is to be transferred from train to road means that, unless something is done, this frighteningly dangerous sort of incident will become the norm."

Mr Scott added that he did not believe Leeman Road was geared up to handle large vehicles such as articulated lorries.

"I am not sure the city realises the implications of transferring the transportation of mail from rail to road. What I saw was bedlam and someone could easily have been hurt," he said.

Mr Scott has written to the head postmaster at the Leeman Road sorting office to complain about the incident, but has not yet received a response.

A Royal Mail spokeswoman said the incident was "a one-off."

Two lorries had arrived at the same time so one had to wait while the other was unloaded, she said.

The spokeswoman added: "It is not Royal Mail policy to have lorries arriving at the same time. We could not fit both into the yard so one had to wait outside for about 20 minutes."

Updated: 09:06 Wednesday, July 02, 2003