‘THINK before you park’ — that’s a call being made by residents at Bannawell Street, Tavistock, after yet another emergency service vehicle struggled to gain access up the busy road due to inappropriate parking.

The street has had a long history with parking issues in regards to cars taking up too much space on the road — an issue which saw an ambulance recently struggle to gain access due to a vehicle which had parked inappropriately on a narrow part of the road.

West Devon mayor and Tavistock councillor Jeff Moody said: ‘The issue the other day was with one car who had parked on the narrow point of the road and was about ten inches from the kerb and was parked there for three days.

‘What we want is for people to think before they park and think “can a fire engine get through?”.

‘I call upon Devon county to sit with residents to find a sensible solution to the problem with parking on Bannawell Street whilst at the same time protecting the residents’ parking.’

In response to parking issues on the road, one Bannawell Street resident said: ‘We have been asking for residents’ parking for several years. They have it in Old Exeter Road so why can’t we?

‘Most of the residents park sensibly, it’s people who either work in or visit the town that don’t. Residents parking would then, hopefully, make people use the car parks provided.

‘We don’t want double yellow lines as they would make parking worse for residents.’

A Devon County Council spokesman said: ‘If a parking issue is raised with us, particularly by the emergency services, we are able to consider changes to waiting restrictions as a part of our annual programme. Any proposals would need to be advertised and objections from the public would be reported to the West Devon highways and traffic orders committee. The police can take action against obstructive parking but we would urge people to park responsibly.’

A spokesperson from Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue service said that people should be aware when parking as ‘every second counts’.

‘We have noticed that an increasing number of homeowners want to park their vehicles directly outside their properties without considering that access may be required for fire appliances in an emergency.

‘It is an on-going problem which occurs all over the service area and there have been occasions when bad parking has delayed fire engines from reaching serious incidents.

‘Every second counts when the emergency services are responding to an incident.

‘The fire service is asking people when parking their vehicle to park close to the kerb, leave enough space for a fire engine or an ambulance to pass, leave extra room near tight corners and fold in their wing mirror.’