NEWTON Abbot town centre was brought to a standstill at around 10am this morning after a blue badge holder parked his car and blocked a main street.

Timothy Burrows, the man responsible for gridlocking the town for an hour-and-a-half, had parked too close to the Courtenay Street/Sherborne Road Junction.

While Mr Burrows was in the town, a lorry tried to get past but became stuck as the car prevented it from turning.

The resulting chaos was a jam stretching through Union Street and Queen Street.

Police were called to unravel the mess and ended up reversing traffic back through the one-way streets and along narrow Hopkins Lane, to rejoin East Street.

Lorries, cars and at least four buses were caught up in the jam, and one of the buses had missed two services.

Once Mr Burrows returned to move his car, which someone had to move for him as the lorry was blocking his door, police officers had a conversation with him.

Talking about the chaos he had caused, Mr Burrows said: ‘I didn’t even know about it because normally I do this and it’s no problem at all.

‘I can’t walk very far and that was the only space available.’

When asked if he regretted parking there now, he said ‘yes’ and added ‘I don’t think I’m going to park there again.’

The police gave Mr Burrows a verbal warning and he said: ‘That’s fair enough, they were doing their job so that’s all well and good.’