A “ticking bomb” and a “serious issue” was how residents described the access road to a housing development which is clogged by parked cars and minicabs every weekend.

Residents of the Queen Mary’s Gate development in Queen Mary Avenue, which holds more than 300 flats,

say minicab drivers picking people up from nightclub Funky Mojoe in High Road, South Woodford, are using the road as a taxi rank.

They say emergency vehicles would not be able to get to them because of the congestion.

Kasia Baranska, 28, who lives in the development, said: “We have two kids, if anything happens in the development like a fire there would not be space for an emergency vehicle to get down the road.”

She said the cabs park right at the top of the road which joins with the High Road meaning sometimes she has to sit through traffic light changes waiting for space to turn into her own road.

Miss Baranska said: “It’s a serious issue and when you speak to them [the cab drivers] they don’t even look at you.

“One Friday night there were at least 10 [cabs] on the pavement, but there are five or six cabs there at all times.”

Not only are the minicabs clogging the road, but revellers going to the club use Queen Mary Avenue as a car park, say residents.

One, who didn’t want to be named and who has started a petition, said: “One day there will be an accident - it’s a ticking bomb for something to happen.”

He said that on Friday and Saturday nights up to 50 parked cars and minicabs can be parked on the narrow street which means an ambulance would not get through.

“It’s a lane of minicabs, they don’t move when you talk to them,” he said.

“I’ve got nothing against Funky Mojoe but they should have someone outside telling people not to park in the road.”

It was not possible to speak to Funky Mojoe’s management about its minicab arrangements.