THE moment a parking attendant served paramedics with a fine has gone viral.

As first reported by our sister newspaper, the Northwich Guardian, stunned shoppers looked on in disbelief at around 3pm on Tuesday at the Tesco Express store in Kingsmead when ambulance workers were issued with the ticket.

Cllr Helen Weltman, Cheshire West and Cheshire Council member, said: “I think that this incident is absolutely disgusting, and borderline draconian.

“Our ambulance service provides the community with a vital lifesaving service and this utter disrespect to the hard-working men and women who provide it is just shameful.

“I am worried now that people will not use this car park in the future with fears of being ticketed without any additional circumstances being taken into consideration. Everyone loses out in the end.”

Passers-by were seen to be expressing their disgust at the parking officer in the video, which was uploaded to Facebook by Ian French.

Medics explained how they had been on call since 6.45am and stopped at the shopping centre in Kingsmead to buy a drink but were met with a parking ticket upon returning.

In protest of the fine, the paramedic can be heard saying: "So you are giving a ticket to an ambulance that is on call? If their radio goes they have to go."

The traffic warden argued back that, because the staff were not actively on-call, the issuing of a ticket was valid.

In the video, he said: “They were not on-call, they were having lunch. Where are the sirens?”

The ambulance staff explained how the vehicle was not able to fit into a normal bay and, instead of taking up a disabled space, they had sought permission from the shop owner if they were OK to park on the kerb.

Legally, emergency vehicles are permitted to stop on all waiting restrictions.