Mechanic Chris Naish has come up with a novel use for the dozens of parking tickets he gets every month - he is papering his garage with them.

Mr Naish, 41, has already got almost 100 tickets on the walls of his workshop in Hove and there are many more at his home in Hangleton.

He reckons if parking wardens continue issuing them at the present rate, his premises will be completely covered in two years.

Mr Naish says his life has been made hell by the city council's tough new parking regime.

Attendants target his customers' vehicles when they are left outside on yellow lines, which were originally painted to ensure the entrance to his garage was not blocked.

Tickets have even been slapped on cars while he was working underneath them and on cars with no engines.

The administration involved in dealing with the tickets has fallen to his wife, Karen, who now spends much of her time writing letters to the council and customers who regularly get demands for unpaid fines.

Most have been cancelled on appeal and Mr Naish is now calling for a common-sense approach by the wardens to put an end to more than a year of madness.

As the motor engineer strode down Brunswick Street East to take three tickets off three customers' cars, he said: "The whole situation is bizarre. I'm perplexed at the way the council allows a parking regime to work in this way.

"I'm just an ordinary working man, trying to earn a decent living for my wife and son. I don't do drugs. I'm not a Hoogstraten who wants to buy the world. I'm an honest man running a small business.

"I'm being frustrated on all sides by these bits of paper which involve my wife and myself in hours of work and phone calls from customers who want to know why they are being pursued for tickets when their car was in my garage.

"The ridiculous thing is that the yellow lines outside my garage are precisely for the purpose of preventing obstruction to my garage.

"We had no problems until National Car Parks took over in 2001. I just want somebody to sort it out so I can get on with running my business."

His local Liberal Democrat councillor Paul Elgood backs Mr Naish's call to allow garages to park cars near their premises in this part of Hove, which has been a centre for the motor trade for more than 80 years.

He said: "I'm amazed the attendants are not more tolerant. If he was blocking Western Road with his cars and parking them on bus stops I would be the first to say 'You deserve all these tickets' but he is just parking the cars he has finished working on."

A spokeswoman for Brighton and Hove Council said: "The council is looking at the parking regulations in this street to see if improved parking restrictions can be introduced. We hope to have a decision in the next month.

"Regarding his call for a flexible waiver for the cars in his care, waivers are only available to traders who are constantly on the move, such as mobile workshops, but Mr Naish operates from a fixed business address."