EMERGENCY access to hundreds of families is being blocked for up to 20 minutes at a time by taxi drivers waiting outside a popular nightspot,
residents claim.

Double yellow lines are painted at the entrance to Queen Mary Avenue which leads to Queen Mary’s Gate in the High Road, South Woodford, but they cannot be enforced because they were painted without permission by the estate’s developers Telford Homes.

Queen Mary Avenue is across the road from Funky Mojoe bar, and residents say minicabs waiting to pick up late night revellers regularly park at the top.

The road is currently owned by Telford but is in the process of being adopted by Redbridge Council, which has no power to issue tickets on the road.

And the problem is  exacerbated by the fact that yellow lines further down the road have been removed, creating a parking free-for-all at the entrance to the estate.

Queen Mary’s Gate resident, Kasia Baranska, 28, said: “It can be impossible to get down there because of the cabs.

“A friend of mine waited 20 minutes the other night and these cab drivers just won’t move.

“It’s a serious issue. What happens if an emergency vehicle needs to get down the road?”

Neighbour Jothi Philip, 33, said: “It’s not just the taxis, the problem is that responsibility for the road is in transition.

“Where they have removed the yellow lines, people are just parking there.

“I have had to wait 15 or 20 minutes to get to my home on a Sunday morning – it really does get very tricky to gain access.

“To me it is a mystery why they removed the yellow lines at all.”

A spokesman for Redbridge council said: “Queen Mary’s Avenue is a private road and the council has no jurisdiction to enforce parking restrictions within it.

“We are waiting to adopt the road, and are currently waiting for the adoption drawings from the developer.

“As soon as these are received, subject to the road being of an adoptable standard, we will arrange for the necessary process to formally adopt as a public highway.

“We have not asked for yellow lines to be removed.

“We are unable to enforce the restrictions in place until the road has been formally adopted.”