A stark warning to motorists who block roads by parking “selfishly” in Ely has been issued by a district councillor after an ambulance struggled to get up Fore Hill.
Residents took to Twitter this afternoon (February 14) after witnessing the ambulance get stuck on the city centre road due to cars parked on double yellow lines.
Councillor Anna Bailey, who was in a meeting at the time, quickly tweeted East Cambridgeshire Police to look into the ongoing parking problems in the area.
Speaking the Ely Standard, she issued a “massive appeal” for people to consider how they would feel if the ambulance was for one of their relatives.
She said: “Residents and shoppers should not be so selfish to be behaving in the way that they are.
“This is a massive appeal to people to think how would they feel if it was their parent or child who needed an ambulance yet they couldn’t get through due to bad parking?
“The district council is bending over backwards to support our High Street and keep things going and give free parking.
“We know that there may not be a lot of parking but it’s a medieval city so it’s going to be different.
“That doesn’t mean that we should be having this type of behaviour with cars blocking the roads – it is just unacceptable, we need more respect.
She added: “Blue badge owners can park as long as there is no obstruction but there should not be a need to park down there.
“Police resources need to be put into more important things than controlling this.”
One eyewitness tweeted: “Ambulance having trouble getting up Forehill in #Ely due to all the badly parked cars.
“The police need to take this seriously!!! Parking should be business loading only on Fore Hill. So dangerous at the moment.”
Cambridgeshire Police said that parking had been a “contentious issue” and they issue tickets when able to.
A spokesperson said: “Parking problems is and always has been a contentious issue.
“Parking was decriminalised a number of years ago and while Cambridge City and Peterborough City councils both chose to employ their own parking officers, South and East Cambs councils both chose not to, and we don’t have specific parking officers either.
“Our PCSO team issue tickets when they are able to do so.”
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