Pete Nichols is planning to sue a council after having his car towed away and receiving 21 parking tickets.

The 54-year-old sports journalist said Brighton and Hove City Council's parking scheme was unfair.

He said: "I am basically embarking on the only action that is left. I am taking action against everybody I can."

Because of the council's waiting list, Mr Nichols has been unable to buy a parking permit and park legally near his home in Montpelier Street, Brighton, since he and his family moved-there in January.

It is likely to be August before his name moves far enough up the list to buy one of the £80 annual permits.

Until then, he believes it would be cheaper to pay the £12 a day fee to keep his car in the tow-away pound than keep gathering parking tickets - 21 of them at the last count and all unpaid.

He said: "By the time I get a permit I will have spent about £2,000 or something like that.

"Brighton is always going to have a problem, there are too many cars and too little space but the application of parking laws in Brighton is chaotic."

He claimed there was no natural justice in the present system and that the council was obliged to provide services, in his case a parking permit, to taxpayers.

He said: "They simply do not apply the parking regulations that exist in a sensible fashion.

"If you really want to bring down the number of cars on the streets the obvious way is to do it by households, so each household gets one."

City councillor Paul Elgood said many people in the central Brighton parking zone, such as Mr Nichols, were encountering problems and the council should look into the situation.

He said: "The system works very well if you can afford a permit or get one, however if you don't qualify you are in an absolutely no-win situation where you can't park your car or risk having it towed away."

A council spokeswoman said there was an eight month waiting list for permits in the Montpelier Street area but cars without permits could park between 6pm and 9am on Mondays to Saturdays and all day Sundays.

She said: "We sympathise with this resident but in the city centre demand for permits exceeds the number available.

"A lot of the houses in the area are of multiple occupation, increasing the demand. We limit the permits issued according to the number of spaces."