But unfortunately the contractors appeared unaware of the message they were paid to convey - and proceeded to park on the pavement themselves.

Their actions, outside All Saints' church, were spotted and snapped by an unnamed Courier reader, who sent in these photographs. Language proved inadequate to express his feelings at this example of irony at its purest; "words fail me" was all he could manage.

The workers' pick-up truck, laden with cones and poles, was parked fully on the paving. It carried a sign reading: "No parking on footway."

The contractors were employed by Warwickshire County Council, which issued a stern rebuke to their behaviour this week. A spokesman said: "This is not acceptable.

"It's not something we expect our contractors to do. We will speak to them about it."

The Courier has received dozens of pictures in recent years of vehicles whose drivers have confused pavements with car parks. The Parade's footways, broadened in 2005, have proved especially tempting, with cars, vans and an articulated lorry among those that have invaded pedestrian territory. Photographs of cracked paving slabs have frequently ensued - although their number has reduced since dozens of wardens were employed last year.

It is a very serious matter for the likes of Ian Foulds, a partially-sighted Leamingtonian. He has described such activities as "extremely dangerous for visually-impaired and vulnerable pedestrians".

He said: "There may be fewer parked on the Parade these days, but they've just been displaced - so you get people parked on pavements in sidestreets instead.

"I try to remonstrate with them, and some are reasonable. But many couldn't care less. They think a pavement is a car park. It isn't."