Firefighters urge drivers to park considerately

Firefighters have urged motorists to make sure their parked vehicles do not prevent crews from attending call-outs after a large van blocked the entrance to a fire station.

The maroon van, measuring 2.6m (9 ft) wide and 8m (26 ft) long, was parked across the entrance to Saffron Walden fire station at about 17:45 GMT on Wednesday.

It left 10 minutes later, after a firefighter spotted it.

Essex County Fire and Rescue Service said there were fortunately no call-outs during that time, and that the driver was spoken to politely before leaving.

Station manager Kev Jenner said: “We’ve had a number of occasions where people have parked in front of the fire station and blocked the yard.

"Not only could this prevent us getting our fire engines out in an emergency, it could also prevent our on-call firefighters parking at the fire station when paged to an incident.

"We’d urge residents to park considerately so emergency services always have room to get through."