Two cars blocking a war memorial ahead of today’s 11am Armistice Day service were towed away by Cambridgeshire police.
And their efforts were widely applauded on social media with many praising them for their quick response.
The offending cars were parked in front of the memorial in the centre of Wisbech.
A police spokesperson said that the cars were causing an obstruction and not parked in a correct parking bay “so they were recovered under police powers”.
Officers said they had cause to remove the cars from The Crescent and Union Place “as they were blocking the war memorial where a service was going to take place at 11am for Armistice Day.
“Please can we park in the correct bays and not park where we like?
“There will be another service taking place on Sunday 13th November 2022 at the same location.”
One post, however, suggested that if police “cracked down more often like this, instead of on just one day of the year, maybe you would also reduce more serious crime?
On the Policing Fenland Facebook page, an officer replied: “Due to the nature of our work, we cannot always conduct parking enforcement around town.
“However, officers have daily issued Fixed Penalty Notices when we can. We will not always post when it has been done.”
Enforcement of parking restrictions in the town has been a major concern for many years and police have been regularly criticised for not issuing more fixed penalty tickets.
Wisbech – part of Fenland – is one of very few areas in the country not to have adopted civil parking enforcement which would mean the issue being handed over to the local authority to control.
However, the district council is working on a civil parking enforcement proposal which is expected to be operational within 18 months.
