During lockdown The Surrey police have given out over 500 fines for parking offences along a road outside of the popular tourist attraction: ‘Virginia Water Park’. Although illegal parking of motorists has proven to be a recurring issue, this abrupt drastic increase in dangerous parking has catalysed discontent within the area.  

Ever since the introduction of the lockdown on March 23rd, the popularity of the park became a cause for great concern as visiting number were rising significantly. The lack of parking to accomodate the excess of people combined with the high prices of the Virginia Water car park, resulted in many people resorting to parking on the nearby roads. One officer issued a total of 77 fixed penalty notices for parking offences along the road in June alone, while the parks parking lot was closed due to worries of lack of compliance with the lockdown rules.

One local, Emily Rose, said: ‘The atmosphere of the entire neighbourhood has been disrupted, every day we experience large amounts of congestion. It takes me 15 mins to travel just one road from my house, I now avoid London Road at all costs’.

Borough commander, Nick Pinkerton, said: ‘Regular patrols of the area are being undertaken by police officers on the A30 clearway. Fixed penalty notices are being issued'. In total, 588 fines were given out throughout lockdown, Mr Pinkerton went on to add that as a result of these parking offences, officers’ time has been ‘diverted from matters of local crime and antisocial behaviour'.