Businesses say parking regulations are crippling their trade and must be changed.

Traders in Hove Street and Sackville Road, Hove, say customers can no longer find spaces nearby and are taking their business elsewhere.

The tighter regulations, brought in when Brighton and Hove City Council took over parking enforcement from the police in August last year, were designed to clear roads of illegally-parked vehicles and provide more space for residents.

But Balvinder Dhesi, of M & B Newsagents in Hove Street, said: "It is hopeless. There's such competition for spaces that people cannot park outside. Passing trade has totally gone and that is what we rely on.

"We don't know what we will do. We do not know if we will be able to stay here.

"I get here at 5.30am each day and struggle to find a space. I dare not go out anywhere during the day because we will lose any spaces we may have had.

"All of us along this parade are feeling it."

Roger Doidge, owner of Freckles Hair Salon, also in Hove Street, said: "The council said the original idea of introducing restricted parking in the area was because it needed the money to fund policing but now they are policing the restricted area but not the non-restricted area, which is jam-packed with people double-parked and all sorts.

"We have lost business and people have said the reason is they cannot park."

Ernie Shipp, of Shipp's News in Sackville Road, said the road was full of cars avoiding restricted parking spaces.

He said: "Where people used to pull up outside and pop in quickly to buy things from us, they cannot do this anymore.

"It is silly because some days when you go along the restricted parking roads there are loads of spaces.

"The council should take away all the restricted parking in nearby Poets Corner. It is not needed. A lot of the residents who it is supposed to benefit are not even at home during the day."

Rachel Dean, 27, owner of Right Hair, Right Now in Sackville Road, said: "When I first decided to take over the salon, I thought it was a really easy area for my clients to park but more and more they are finding it difficult.

"A lot of the time, if they are having a colour done or something that takes a long time, they have to rush out to their cars."

A spokeswoman for Brighton and Hove City Council said: "The whole scheme is coming under review very shortly.

"Obviously, we do not expect to have got it exactly right first time. We would suggest any businesses experiencing problems because of the changes should send their comments into the council in time for the review."