THE ABSENCE of traffic wardens in Marlow is encouraging people to park illegally and treat the High Street as a free-for-all causing congestion and chaos, residents have claimed.

David Regan, of Rookery Court, has gone as far to say there is no need to drive to the public car parks anymore because the traffic wardens have all disappeared.

He said it was so bad that some motorists were now parking on double and single yellow lines, in prohibited places such as bus stops and even on zebra crossings and traffic light controlled crossings.

He asked what the point was of having yellow lines painted outside Holy Trinity Church of England School in Wethered Road, Marlow, if parents were going to ignore them.

Mr Regan added: "When I asked the community policeman, he said the wardens had been disbanded.

"The result is chaos in High Street, West Street, Spittal Street, Institute Road, Station Road and Wethered Road.

"What on earth is going on?"

Thames Valley Police has confirmed that traffic wardens in Marlow and across the rest of the Wycombe District are being phased out as part of a scheme to decriminalise parking and transfer responsibility for parking enforcement to local authorities.

Marlow Society spokesman Jane Savidge said the council couldn't take on the new parking responsibilities soon enough.

She said: "As somebody who uses the High Street nearly every day, I see people taking advantage of the gap in parking enforcement all the time.

"People are parking on double yellow lines and it's really frustrating because there are plenty of car parks around in Marlow.

"Illegal parking means people can't make their deliveries and it jams up the whole place."

But police say parking enforcement is still part of their duties and they are aided by police community support officers (PCSOs) who also have some responsibility for parking enforcement.

At the same time the police acknowledge that parking issues are neither the sole remit of police officers nor PCSOs and therefore they are not a replacement for traffic wardens.

The pay and display public car parks are managed separately by the district council.