A mother-of-four claims she and her 17-month-old child were nearly hit by a car after she was forced to walk in the road.

Maxine Godfrey, 29, of Clarendon Street, Dover, said motorists often park their cars on the kerb, in some instances, just yards away from her front gate.

Miss Godfrey then has to walk her children, whose ages range from 11 to 17 months, in the road, simply ducking and diving when cars come past.

She said: “There was a car coming and I didn’t know whether to run or what – so I ran to a gap between two cars.

Loads of mums have to walk in the road with their buggies because cars park too far up.

It isn’t very safe I don’t let my children out the front to play that much – not any more.” - Maxine Godfrey

The problem, Miss Godfrey said, has been going on for years and an example of how inconvenient it is occurred when she went into labour with her youngest child.

Miss Godfrey said: “I went into labour on Mother’s Day last year at home and the ambulance had to park around the corner. I had to walk to it in a lot of pain. It is like it up here all of the time but no one has done anything about it.”

She has called for motorists to “take some consideration” and not park so close to people’s houses”.

A district council spokesman said: “There are no parking restrictions in Clarendon Street, other than yellow line junction protection and four disabled parking bays, which are enforced by DDC’s civil enforcement officers.

“Vehicles parking on the footway causing obstruction are a clear matter for the police who have the powers to deal with such offences. Should residents want additional parking prohibitions, then they will need to apply to KCC Highways.”

Read the full report in this week's Mercury - out now.