Peter and Gillian Ward, who live in Primrose Lane, said it took crews 25 minutes to get to the car, which had been dumped on the narrow country lane.

Once they managed to reach it they extinguished the flames in minutes, but the couple say that had the fire been in a house, the delay could have had disastrous consequences.

"The fire engine tried to get through via the Lower Hall estate and couldn't because they couldn't get past the badly parked cars," he said.

"It then tried to reverse out again but couldn't because there were cars parked on the corner. They had to knock on people's doors to ask them to move, and finally managed to get out.

"They then came down the top of Primrose Lane which is awkward and narrow and again they had to ask people to move, and to cap it all, one car was parked over the fire hydrant.

"I've been going on about this for years ever since I was taken ill in the middle of the night. The ambulance could not get through and I had to be carried to Lower Hall Mount.

"This time it was only a car on fire, but if it had been our house – or someone else's – we'd have frazzled in our beds."

A spokesman from Cleckheaton fire station said car owners should always try to ensure there was enough room for emergency vehicles.

"We cannot stop people parking outside their homes, and we would have no way of policing it, so it's about making people more aware," he said.

"It's a problem in many areas particularly these days when families have two or three cars.

"If the resident wants to contact our station manager and put forward their concerns, then maybe we can do a leaflet drop in the area to highlight the problems."