Councillors have attacked plans for a private firm to take control of parking attendants in Brighton and Hove.

Brighton and Hove Council hopes to run parking enforcement from next May after taking over the service from traffic wardens.

It has decided to contract out parking attendants and the removal of cars that are causing obstructions. This could involve up to 100 jobs.

There will have to be 43 parking attendants on duty just to cover the existing controlled areas at any one time, with 70 employed in total to cover rest days and annual leave.

More will be needed if controlled areas are increased.

There will also have to be staff on duty at a pound and a crew to take away illegally parked vehicles.

But Lib Dem councillor Paul Elgood who said: "This is nothing short of a privatisation of parking enforcement."

Council staff will continue to retain some parking duties including answering inquiries about the scheme.

Environment director Alan McCarthy said there was an established list of contractors who provided parking services.

But Coun Elgood said: "The council has the option to manage this in-house and has not chosen to do so.

"It is a shame that we are not seeking to run this ourselves, especially when you think of the massive cost of parking consultants in the last year alone.

"The first few years will be difficult and I would be far happier to see our own in-house team undertaking this task.

"We need to be sure this policy is implemented well and that the accident-prone mistakes of other new contracts are not repeated."

He said no decision should be made about putting out the work until a public consultation into the parking changes had been finished.