The Ministry of Defence has started to get tough with people who park in the road outside the newly opened Corsham base.

People are parking on both sides of Westwells Road, in Neston, despite there being enough car parking spaces for the base’s 2,100 staff, causing anger amongst residents.

But now Sheena Lamont, head of shared services at the site, has taken to the streets to get her message across. She was joined last week by a team of senior managers who were out from 7am to hand out flyers to staff as they parked their cars to discourage them from parking in the location.

Mrs Lamont said: “We, like everyone else, don’t want people to park on Westwells Road and we are discouraging staff from doing so. We have more than enough spaces for our staff to park in.

“Visitors are being advised to park on the Rudloe site. We have also placed cones along the highway and anyone who parks in these locations are being issued with tickets. We have issued ten tickets so far.

“We have been meeting residents regularly to discuss the issues. The problem is that staff point out that it is not illegal to park on that road.”

Steve Drew, from Neston, said: “The MoD need to realise that we have had two years of disruption from the construction of the site and now they need to take us into consideration as residents.”

Anne Lock, president of the Corsham Civic Society, said: “Rather than just handing flyers, they should take a note of who is parking on the road and meet them to go through their travel plans. I would also like to see no parking on one side of the road.”

Coun Dick Tonge, Wiltshire Council cabinet member for highways, said: “We are wary that if we place restrictions on the road people will park further away and possibly into some of the surrounding estates.”