An East Sussex charity which helps children and adults receive a better education is facing colossal parking ticket fines totalling £16,000.

Volunteers for Hailsham-based Computers for Charities have accumulated the huge total since January after being repeatedly hit with £50 fines.

Their Fiat van with the charity logo is ticketed up to six times a day as it is parked in central London streets to collect disused computers from homes and businesses.

The computer parts are refurbished and used to fund the charity's efforts to provide educational projects in Africa, eastern Europe and the UK.

But Computers for Charities chairman Simon Rooksby has had to stop collections from homes in central London because of the rising penalties.

He said £16,000 owed in parking ticket fines represents a massive chunk of the charity's annual income of £40,000.

Mr Rooksby, whose charity has won backing from celebrities including Richard Branson and Kate Winslet, has written to London mayor Ken Livingstone seeking special dispensation.

He said the charity has saved London boroughs £500,000 since it started nine years ago by removing waste.

Mr Rooksby said: "Our intention is to help communities. Yet traffic wardens are not helping us.

"If we stop collecting from London then our volume of computers will decrease and ultimately many children and projects will lose out."