Firefighters have urged motorists to be mindful of where they park as people continue to work from home.
Crews say they have encountered issues in not only residential streets in Staffordshire but at beauty spots where parked vehicles have made it “challenging” for firefighters to drive the fire engines through.
Now residents have been asked by Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service to make sure they are leaving enough space for emergency vehicles.
Ant Ball, watch manager at Leek Community Fire Station, said: “We always ask people not to park over the hydrants, to which we require access, and to avoid parking too close to road junctions, as that can stop the tail end of the engine from getting through.
“The issues that we encounter are not just on residential streets. We have also been seeing it in beauty spots like the Roaches, Dovedale and the Manifold Valley, where visitors are parking their cars but not leaving much room for engines such as ours to safely get through.”
The service has previously issued leaflets in areas where bad parking has made it difficult for engines to pass.
Mr Ball added: “Fortunately at our station, we have never been delayed when getting to an incident due to parking, but if we were to be, then there could be serious consequences.”
