COUNCILLORS were left exasperated after it was revealed police were being forced to park in the streets because of a lack of spaces at a new station.

Debenham’s new fire and police station was unveiled by Suffolk Police and Crime Commissioner Tim Passmore and Suffolk County Council’s Colin Spence last week.

But the station was criticised as Debenham Parish Council discussed spending thousands of pounds on bollards to stop nuisance parking throughout the village.

Speaking at a parish council meeting, PCSO Stephen Johnson, said: “There’s no staff parking at the police station. There’s one for a mobile car, one for a marked car and one for an unmarked car. There’s a disabled parking bay that will never be used. We have no disabled members of staff and we have no visitors to the station.”

Councillor David Hughes said: “It’s absolutely disgraceful. We have got a police station with staff coming there to work and then they leave their car there. It’s absolutely ridiculous. There was planning consent given for that – I’m staggered.”

PCSO Johnson said: “All staff at the station, when told, made the same representation – ‘where are going to park?’ and they said ‘where you like’.”

The council agreed in the meeting to spend up to £1,500 on parking bollards with further cash needed to install them.

Council chairman Richard Blackwell said parking was causing a “real problem” in the village.

He said: “It saddens me that we are going to have to do it. When push comes to shove we are going to have to put the posts up.”

The metal bollards will cost £120 each with the council looking at installing them in areas including near The Angel pub and United Reformed Church.

In the meeting councillor Hughes suggested the council should hire a traffic warden to patrol the village.

PCSO Chris Bales, who covers Debenham and works from the new station, said: “There have been no reported complaints from local residents in relation to police employees parking around the new station. Although there is no private parking on site, there is an adequate amount of legal parking available in the surrounding area that a very small number of employees use.”

The joint police and fire station in Low Road is home to three police constables and three PCSO officers.