THESE pictures show a normally quiet residential road swamped by cars abandoned by people heading to Bicester Village.

The photographs were taken on Boxing Day by a resident of Kings Avenue as more than 30,000 people – equivalent to the population of Bicester – descended on the designer outlet shopping complex.

Bicester Village shoppers parked on the road and verges the length of Kings Avenue, into Chalvey Road and Ray Road, throughout Christmas week.

Residents said it was “absolute chaos” and “extremely dangerous”, and warned emergency vehicles would not have been able to get through to some houses.

Some residents who moved their cars found they couldn’t park nearby when they got back. Nearby Middleton Stoney Road and parts of the A41 were coned off by police to prevent a repeat of previous years when motorists parked on verges there.

Sallie Wright, of Colne Close, said: “We spoke to several of the car drivers and they said they were told to come up here by the traffic police.

“Residents were turning them away as we have got very limited car parking space. But drivers were just coming up and leaving their cars there – it had a real impact on us.

“It was absolute chaos and extremely dangerous.

“It was not just Boxing Day, but has been like it each day since then. Boxing Day was probably the worst.”

Mrs Wright backed calls to get a park-and-ride scheme at land off the A41, near junction nine of the M40, up and running, and said councillors may have to consider a residents’ parking scheme.

She said: “As Bicester Village gets more popular, we are going to start seeing this parking every day.”

Margaret Byrne, of Cherwell Close, who has health problems and has to use an oxygen tank to help her breathing, said she went to a doctor’s appointment, but when she came back her parking space was blocked.

She said: “It was terrible. I could not get out on Boxing Day or New Year’s Day.”

On Boxing Day police closed a section of the A41 between the Esso roundabout and Rodney House roundabout for three hours after drivers abandoned their vehicles and walked to the shopping village.

Neighbour Derek Knight said: “It was a total block-up.

“If there had been an emergency, the fire or ambulance wouldn’t have got through Chalvey and Ray Roads.”

Bicester Village and Oxfordshire County Council said discussions were on-going about a park-and-ride scheme and general traffic management in the area.

County council spokesman Marcus Mabberley said Boxing Day saw an “unprecedented” number of visitors to the centre.

He added: “The sort of traffic problems encountered over the Christmas period are certainly not experienced on a day-to-day basis throughout the year.”