Firefighters in East Cowes took to the streets on Monday to establish whether residential roads in the town are accessible in an emergency, but they soon found roads which were blocked by inconsiderate parking.
The Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service, alongside other fire services nationwide, are continuing to encounter poor parking in and around their stations. Inconsiderately parked vehicles mean appliances are unable to access narrow or awkward roads during an emergency.
2 out of 5 roads the retained fire crew drove down on Monday night were not accessible. Thankfully, this time it was not an emergency, but if it had been, such as a house fire with persons reported, the parking situation could have meant the difference between life and death.
East Cowes Fire Station took to their Facebook Page to say:
“We visited Kings Road, which we drove the length of with no issues. Broadsmith Avenue, which we also travelled the length of, was down to centimetres clearance in places but we got through.
“Then we looked at Nelson Close which we could not access due to cars parked at a junction and Grenvell Close, which we could also not access due to parked cars and hedging.
“Both locations we would need cars moved to access a fire”.
Andy Bowers, Hampshire Fire Service’s Deputy Chief Fire Officer, has previously said:
“The issue of motorists blocking the paths of emergency services vehicles is worse than ever before.
“Some drivers are parking opposite one another making an entire road inaccessible while others are actually stopping by station exits, often in the hatched areas, and some are even leaving their cars on our grounds.
“Please also remember that although you may only hear one siren, there may regularly be more than one emergency vehicle responding.
“These issues are causing delays and when tackling a fire or cutting somebody out of a car this can be the difference between life and death.”
It was only 2 weeks ago that Island Echo ran a story on poor parking in Freshwater and Ventnor.
You can find out more about the dangers of obstruction fire appliances on the Hampshire Fire website at https://www.hantsfire.gov.uk/keeping-safe/ontheroad/ineedmyspace/.
Start giving people fines then!!
Yes it’s about time the police crack down on this…. Parking on pavements, parking on double lines, and parking on blind bends with half the vehicle on the road and the other half on the pavment.. On my est it’s really bad and we have a bus service that goes through the est
I agree the police should do something but that would mean police doing some work and we can’t have that can we
And this situation will increase with the continuous proposed house building on the island (potentially 9000 in the Island Plan).
The council don’t give a flying fig about on road parking. They are encouraging more housing as its around a thousand pounds a year per house in council tax for them, easy money when someone else is building them.
Absolutely Golly! The island as a whole looks like an advert for National Car Parks. I’m sure a lot of folk think yellow lines are there to make the roads look pretty and that their drives look better empty if they park in the road.
Think also people should stop taking home the vehicles that belong to the company they work for, unless of course they have a drive to put them on. Perhaps this would free up spaces on roads for people to use if they don’t have the luxury of a drive.
But, at the end if they day, there are far too many cars in the Island and it won’t get any better!
Name and shame the idiots
We live Hawthorn Meadows. Dustbin men have refused to emty bins some weeks as people bad parking.
All have parking places. But too lazy to walk to House.
ON our estate they built the roads so narrow. I am glad I live on the front of the estate – it is a dead end and when they were building it I thought there would be a problem for fire engines.
Inconsiderate parking has got worse everywhere because half the time people have nowhere to park, not an excuse but a problem.
The Police should crack down heavily on Pavement parking, Freshwater has many permanent offenders. You have to walk in the road with a pushchair to get past the cars this is not a temporary problem it is simply treated as the Norm.