Enforcement officers are to investigate allegations of a car dealership selling vehicles in the road, a meeting heard.

The promise came at Redbridge Council’s local forum last week after claims from residents that Lexus Woodford keeps cars in neighbouring streets for customers to view, causing parking problems.

“We have got all these cars parked there for three or four weeks at a time,” explained one resident, who lives in Woodside Road and wished to remain anonymous.

“Customers come over and they are taking their phones out, taking pictures of them and test driving them.

“All of our neighbours are so angry, my husband has to park four streets away.”

Following the meeting, a spokesman from the dealership, in High Road, Woodford Green, firmly denied the allegations.

He said: “We would never do such a thing. Our employees park their cars there but we do not leave cars there for more than a day. We would never send our customers there across the road when we have a large forecourt for them to use at our dealership.”

Council head of civic pride and enforcement John Richards promised to investigate at Thursday’s meeting in All Saints’ Church, Inmans Way, Woodford Green.

“The new enforcement team has powers to deal with this,” he said.

Mr Richards explained officers would take down the cars’ details and see if they appear online, as selling vehicles on the road is crime.

He added that the enforcement team had recently completed a successful investigation elsewhere in the borough, but if it could not find evidence of the cars being sold on websites it was hard to prosecute.

“They know what they are doing,” Anne Spence, also of Woodside Road.said at the forum.

“They park them down our street and phone the dealers. They get the customers and sell them on the road. Nothing appears online.”

Allegedly the dealers originally used different streets, but angry residents vandalised the new Toyotas and BMWs and the cars were moved to Woodside Road.

Council leader Cllr Jas Athwal was confident the enforcement team would succeed if there had been any wrongdoing.

“We can do what we have done successfully in other parts of the borough,” he said.

“It shouldn’t be that difficult to catch them.”