A spring clean to rid Brighton and Hove's pay- and-display machines of graffiti will start on Monday.

The city council has hired contractors to clean the machines, starting in the central Hove area, which is the worst affected.

The machines will also be coated with a special solution so any future graffiti can be wiped away.

More than 20 machines a day will be cleaned during a two-week period.

Notices on the machines due to be cleaned will ask drivers to use alternatives.

In roads where every machine has to be cleaned, drivers may need to go to the next street to pay.

Carol Rogers, parking contracts manager for the council, said: "We apologise in advance for any inconvenience this might cause."

The city council has just paid more than £70,000 for a spring clean of streets, including the removal of more than two million blobs of chewing gum.