A CRACKDOWN on illegal parking has been called for after an ambulance on an emergency call in Wallingford was delayed.

Town mayor Lynda Atkins said the town council has been concerned for some time that drivers parking where they shouldn’t was a growing problem.

But after an ambulance found its path through St Martin’s Street blocked last month by a car parked illegally next to a bus stop, councillors have called for more to be done to tackle the issue.

Thames Valley Police has now been asked to urge its police community support officers to take a “proactive” approach to illegal parking.

Ms Atkins said: “We understand no harm came to the patient concerned, but this has emphasised the reality of the town council’s concerns and we are very pleased indeed that our local PCSOs will now be taking a pro-active approach to stopping illegal parking.”

Town councillors had originally wanted police to hand over monitoring of parking to South Oxfordshire District Council.

This would have seen SODC employ parking attendants to look out for cars parked illegally instead of police officers, who often cannot prioritise illegal parking because of other duties.

SODC decided against the change, with leader John Cotton saying there had not been a huge demand from residents for transferring powers over from police and the cost of parking attendants would have had to be met by district tax payers.

Sgt Fraser Weller of the Wallingford neighbourhood team, said TVP preferred to educate drivers about parking, rather than issue tickets.