POLICE OFFICERS in Kidlington have warned they will not enforce new yellow lines on a road they have been accused of using as their own car park.

Residents along Oxford Road have been campaigning for years for parking restrictions outside their homes after claiming cars belonging to staff at the nearby Thames Valley Police headquarters were clogging up the road.

Plans were put forward in January 2014 to block parking on the eastern service road, but were dropped after objections from the public.

Now senior traffic technician at Oxfordshire County Council David Thomas has said the yellow lines will finally be on the road by July 20.

But residents are angry as TVP has said it does not have the resources to enforce the restrictions – despite its headquarters being about 50 yards away. Michael Makepeace, who has lived next to the service road for 36 years, said: “You have Kidlington Police station next door and the headquarters – if they can’t police it, it is ludicrous.

“It just makes it a nonsense because you have the police next door who use the service road for additional parking.

“It would not take many resources to police because they are on site 50 yards away.

“If it is their responsibility, they should police it and the question is why have they not taken this up with the council? They will not acknowledge that they are using the service road not for what it was intended.

“They are part of the problem because they use the service road as a car park.”

County council spokesman Paul Smith said parking enforcement was legally a matter for the police in the Cherwell District Council area.

But Sgt Colin Travi, of the Kidlington local policing team, said policing the parking restrictions would hinder tackling higher priorities.

Sgt Travi said: “If we are out and about and we see someone parking on the yellow lines, we will deal with it.

“But we are not going to send a team.

“I don’t think the role of the police is to be doing this because we have got other priorities like drugs and antisocial behaviour.

“If people are annoyed about it, I don’t think they should come to the police because I have not got the staff or the team to deal with it.

“The council can’t afford to put a traffic warden there at the moment so it is left to the police to enforce it.

“But we have got far more serious priorities to deal with.”

PCSO Ian Wilkins, from the Kidlington policing team, said he hoped residents and the police could work together.

Mr Wilkins said: “ I would like to think the residents will report anyone that causes any issues.”

When asked if force vehicles parking on the yellow lines in any way influenced monitoring plans for the road, Thames Valley Police said they would deal with parking enforcement alongside other priorities in the area.