Builder Sean Ashcroft has been left fuming by untaxed cars taking up parking spaces and preventing motorists with up-to-date tax discs from parking near their homes.

Mr Ashcroft was given a parking ticket at 8.56am on New Year's Eve because he could not park legally where he wanted to.

Now he is calling on the police and traffic attendants to get tough with the owners of untaxed vehicles.

In a spot check along Kingsway, Hove, he discovered 12 vehicles with invalid tax discs. Some were displaying discs showing the year 2000.

Mr Ashcroft, who lives in Kingsway, said: "Nobody seems to do anything about them. It is ridiculous. I spoke to the traffic warden who gave me the ticket about the number of cars without up-to-date tax discs parked nearby and I was told it was a matter for the police. Yet when I approached the police, I was told it was a matter for the traffic wardens and DVLA.

"As a responsible motorist, I pay £660 a year tax for my four vehicles and seem to always get a ticket when I park near my home.

"Yet just up the road there are cars in an unrestricted area left for sometimes up to a year and nobody seems to do anything about it."

Mr Ashcroft added: "Everybody knows there is a serious parking problem here, especially in the spring and summer when people start using Hove Lagoon. There have been times when cars have blocked the entrance to my driveway.

"If the untaxed cars which are illegally parked on Kingsway were removed it would free up some parking spaces.

"It seems there is one law for the people who pay their car tax and another for people who don't pay and get away with it.

"The parking wardens and police seem to be ignoring the large number of cars without valid tax discs. Yet immediately I park my taxed cars on the road near my home, even for a few minutes, I seem to get a ticket."

A spokeswoman for Brighton and Hove City Council, which is responsible for the enforcement of parking regulations, said: "Untaxed vehicles are a matter for the police. But when a traffic warden issues a ticket and finds the car is untaxed, the DVLA is automatically notified."

A Sussex Police spokeswoman said: "We are agents for DVLA and inform them of untaxed vehicles on the road. It is up to them to write to the owner to ask them why the car is on the road untaxed and to order payment. It also has the power to remove the vehicles from the road."

The DVLA has already highlighted areas of Brighton and Hove with a large number of untaxed cars on the road and is planning to bring in a mobile crusher to pulverise them.