Council leaders are patting themselves on the back for raking in more than £1 million in the three months since a parking blitz began.

Brighton and Hove City Council took over responsibility for parking wardens from the police on July 16.

Since then, 33,582 tickets have been issued. This works out at one for every four minutes, day and night, since the regulations have been in force.

Assuming everyone receiving a fine has paid £30 promptly, thus avoiding a further £30 penalty, this has brought £1 million to council coffers.

So far, 506 people have had their tickets overturned on appeal.

Owners of the 578 vehicles towed away have paid even greater fines.

A council spokeswoman said she expected the pattern to be continued throughout the first year, with more than 120,000 tickets dished out.

This could release up to £4 million for the council, which will have spent £2.3 million on implementing the scheme and administration costs.

Councillor Alison Hermitage, lead Cabinet member for transport, said she thought the scheme, which is run by NCP, had been a big success.

She admitted there had been complaints about parking attendants being over-zealous at times in ticketing vehicles but said she thought teething problems had been ironed out.

She said: "We have kept a very close eye on parking attendants and kept in contact with NCP all the way through."

The council spokeswoman said although more than 500 ticket decisions were overturned, many more were still pending.

"However, she said the 120,000 parking tickets the council expected to give out in a year was below Westminster in London, where some 850,000 are administered every year.

But David Razzell, Sussex representative of the Association of British Drivers, said the scheme was "totally unjustified".

He said: "The Brighton scheme is typical of the council's unjustified war against the car user.

"At a time when Britain's tourist industry is suffering as never before, Brighton and Hove City Council continues to destroy the local tourist trade.

"This is because of its contemptuous treatment of the majority of tourists who have no choice but to visit this congested city in their cars.

"Local businesses are under attack by a council that is doing all it can to prevent visitors to the city from being able to park at reasonable cost.

"Modern cars cause negligible pollution. Indeed, the buses that the council tries to force people on to are responsible for far more pollution.

"Just look at how many buses which are virtually empty are trundling around Brighton belching out fumes while the car drivers sit in traffic jams caused by the council's own measures."