Traffic warden steers a safe course on St Mary's

For motorists on the Isles of Scilly a visit by a traffic warden yesterday was a novelty. Dave Robinson arrived from Cornwall at St Mary's, the biggest of the five islands, after reports of illegal parking.

Car owners on the archipelago do not have to get an MoT or contend with speed cameras.

The island's police - a sergeant and a police constable - said that emergency vehicles in Hugh Town, the capital, were having trouble passing illegally parked cars. PC Jo Clarke said there were too many cars, leading to drivers parking wherever they could.

Mr Robinson did not issue a single ticket on his first morning. News of his arrival spread quickly among the 2,000 inhabitants and drivers had been "behaving" well.

Neville Gardner, chief technical officer at the Council of the Isles of Scilly, said the rules of the road "apply on the Isles of Scilly the same as everywhere else".