POLICE have cautioned the Kent Labour MP and government minister Chris Pond following a row with neighbours over parking.

The official caution follows an incident in early February when Mr Pond, 52, a minister at the Department of Work and Pensions, was detained and later bailed.

The incident involved an altercation with neighbours in a mews street in Hackney, east London, where Mr Pond lives.

The MP said he had decided to accept the caution to end the "nightmare" and spare his family even though he had been advised that had the case come to court, the case against him would have been thrown out.

The incident came after the minister asked his neighbour if he could park his car in the street for one Sunday because his wife was heavily pregnant. He wanted to be sure he could leave for hospital quickly if necessary.

However, his care remained in place until the following Thursday. That day, the husband of the local residents' association secretary, put a no parking sign on a nearby wall.

The neighbour, Nicola Ashton, 31, a personnel manager, said that Mr Pond mistakenly believed that she or her husband had put up the sign. He later is alleged to have tried to stick the no parking sign on the Ashtons' front door, prompting the couple to call the police.

Mr Pond said: "I decided to bring the nightmare to an end by accepting a police caution. In doing that I have to accept I made a mistake. If leaving traces of glue on the door constitutes criminal damage I have to take responsibility for it."

He also described the whole affair as a "storm in a teacup".

Mr Pond was elected in the Labour landslide in 1997 and has a majority of 4,500. He is considered a Labour loyalist and has until now had a blemish-free career.