DUNMOW S White Street car park was plunged into chaos on Wednesday morning. Cars backed out onto the High Street and jostled for position in the car park after a six foot high fence appeared overnight blocking access to one side. Jenny Shillibeer, from Wo

DUNMOW'S White Street car park was plunged into chaos on Wednesday morning.

Cars backed out onto the High Street and jostled for position in the car park after a six foot high fence appeared overnight blocking access to one side.

Jenny Shillibeer, from Woodlands Park, Great Dunmow, was caught up in the mayhem.

She said: "This is car parking madness, I have a disabled passenger here and nowhere to park near to where we need to be. No one has consulted any of the public about this. It is a horrible situation."

Cars making the usual right turn into the White Street car park were met with the unexpected fence and were forced to reverse towards oncoming traffic.

One Co-op shopper who had been watching the events unfold commented: "It is a miracle that no cars have collided with each other."

The fence has been put up around the perimeter of the new White Street development in the centre of town, but in doing so the developers have effectively took away a third of the space, and on market day too.

Dawn Trembath from Cross Lane, Little Canfield, tried to park at the site to shop on the High Street and found her car marooned.

She said: "That really caught me out, there is nowhere to go in the car park now.

"Why is it we are forced to pay higher car park fees but our parking is becoming more and more limited."

Parking at White Street was recently extended towards the north end of the site but mainly spaces were provided for season ticket holders, a fact that disgusted Mrs Trembath, who made the point that more parking should be available to occasional users.

However, the situation could get even worse. The fenced off area will increase from the end of February cutting off almost half of the car park from non season ticket holders.

A spokesman from Uttlesford District Council's parking office said: "The spaces in the car park have been re-allocated so that there is enough parking for pay and display users and there are no current plans to increase spaces for pay and display users.

"The developers agreed with us in advance that they would still allow access around the car park."

In agreement a Taylor Wimpey Project spokesman confirmed that the developers tried to cone off an area to allow traffic flow as agreed with Uttlesford, but motorists had removed them earlier that day.

He said: "We needed the extra space for construction and the fence is there as a result of that, we are sorry for the confusion and will put down something more permanent such as road markings to stop it happening again.