Drivers in a congested Sussex town could face traffic chaos next year when more than half the town's parking spaces are taken out of use.

A unique combination of events will drastically reduce the stock of publicly available and other major parking in Lewes, leaving motorists with hundreds fewer places to leave their cars.

Lewes District Council has agreed emergency measures to find extra spaces in a bid to ease the looming crisis.

But despite its efforts, drivers are preparing for a frustrating March and April - the critical months when almost 50 per cent fewer spaces will be available.

The disruption will begin in September with the commencement of the first of several major projects due to take place in Lewes during the next 18 months.

The redevelopment of the Lewes House site will mean the permanent closure of 55 public spaces, followed by the gradual phasing out of 93 staff spaces between February and May next year.

In February, 21 on-street parking spaces will also disappear from Cliffe High Street, when work begins to widen pavements there.

A major engineering project by Southern Water to install pipelines as part of a sewer overflow scheme will also cause disruption, removing up to 140 spaces at a time.

Dozens of public spaces will be temporarily lost from Pinwell Road, Brook Street and Safeway car parks, while 34 places will be lost from the private car park used by magistrates at Court Road. On-street spaces in Garden Street will be out of action for nine months while other, as yet unidentified spaces, could be affected for access at certain times.

Part of the Southover School car park will be closed and two spaces will be briefly lost at Dumbrell Court.

Meanwhile the Environment Agency will carry out flood defence works in Tesco's car park in early 2004, possibly costing up to 70 spaces.

The series of works is set to coincide with the decriminalisation of on-street parking across the Lewes district and a subsequent tightening of restrictions.

The county council will take over responsibility for enforcement from the police from February, bringing parking wardens and parking meters to the streets of Lewes.

The new regime will mean the introduction of residents-only parking bays in various streets, at a cost of 100 public parking spaces.

The district council, which will work closely with the county council to manage on and off-street parking under the new arrangements, says 414 spaces out of a total of 774 will be out of action in March next year, dropping to a permanent 269 less by Christmas 2004.

Last week district councillors agreed a package of measures to address the shortfall - which they say should provide a total of about 100 new spaces.

The closure of East Sussex County Council's offices at Pelham House will free up 80 spaces at North Street and The Maltings, which the district council is now in negotiations to lease for public parking.

The removal and relocation of coach bays from the Brook Street and Phoenix car parks is expected to produce at least 20 more spaces.

The work, together with a package of car park surface improvements, is expected to cost £106,760.

The council will also discontinue the issuing of special permits which entitle residents to public car park spaces.

In a separate agreement, councillors agreed a new order should be issued reducing the maximum stay period in Lewes Leisure Centre car park from 24 to two hours.

Councillor Neil Commin, Cabinet member for planning, said: "All of these measures will help to address the demand for parking which will come under considerable pressure in 2004."