Backlash after parking blitz

Traders, motorists, non car-owners and even one traffic warden have criticised the scheme as the first victims of the clampdown paid their £30 fines.

Some protesters voted with their fists, vandalising the newly-installed solar parking meters before they were brought into service.

There was further confusion when a new residents' parking scheme in central Hove was put on hold because of delays in sending out permits.

But Brighton and Hove City Council and contractor NCP said the first day's operation was a successful one and sent out a tough new message.

The team of 70 wardens will be on patrol from 9am until midnight in the city centre.

The first new-style parking attendants set out in their green and white uniforms at 9am yesterday and within hours a number of illegally parked cars and vans had been loaded on to the dreaded tow truck and carted away.

By noon, the patrol was in full swing.

Tom Sanders was among the first to get a ticket in West Street, Brighton.

He had parked on double yellow lines to repair a dishwasher at a nearby hotel.

He said: "I was there for 30 minutes and I had a ticket when I came back to the van.

"Last week I would have been able to leave a note on the windscreen, like I have done today, and would not have got a ticket.

"They would have let me park while I did the repair. But not today.

"I'm all in favour of cracking down on dangerous parking. But what harm was I doing leaving my van there while I worked?"

A city council spokeswoman said: "All of the money from tickets is being ploughed into schemes to make the city's road safer and congestion free."

Around the corner on the seafront in King's Road a tow truck crew was preparing to remove a Fiat parked on a taxi rank.

Having been issued with a ticket by the parking attendant, a tow truck was then called in.

One of the crew, who did not want to be named, said: "This is the third vehicle we have towed away this morning.

"People get used to what might happen if they continue to park illegally in the city centre. But at the moment they seem to be carrying on as they were last week and are simply ignoring the rules."

But a traffic warden who worked for Sussex Police before the changeover and has been offered a job with NCP said: "They swear blind it's not a money-making operation but of course it is.

"I believe this is not a job you can do without a little discretion. I once issued a notice to an elderly man who came running up to his car practically in tears.

"He was in a state of confusion because he'd been sorting out his wife's funeral. If I was working for NCP I would have had to have issued the ticket and wouldn't have been able to live with myself."

John Gallagher, of the British Association of Motorists, believes the knock-on effects of the parking clampdown would lead to 2,000 jobs being lost in the city as tourists and shoppers steered clear.

Retired Henry Law, who has lived in North Laine for 20 years, said he would also lose out even though he doesn't own a car.

He said single-yellow lines and loading bays had been replaced with residents' parking bays meaning people who visit him have to pay £2 an hour.

He said: "It's people like me who make this sort of scheme workable but my friends can't afford to visit me with this new crackdown."

NCP was awarded the £2.3 million contract in February. It has cost about £2 million to transfer responsibility for parking from the police but the council hopes to recoup this during its first five years.

A city council spokeswoman said: "Enforcement is out on the streets. We have been concentrating our efforts on people parking dangerously and the results are very clear. Traffic has been flowing much more freely throughout the city centre.

"We are very concerned about the damage to the meters and have passed on all the details to police."