A company is being forced to relocate because its workers are forking out up to £1,000 a week in parking tickets.

Wayne Gumbrell, managing director of Lionvest Trading in Church Road, said the parking situation in Hove had become a nightmare.

He wants to move to another town along the South Coast, with the loss of ten jobs from Hove.

Two members of his staff resigned because they could not afford the £30 fines they were given several times a week for parking on double yellow lines.

Other employees at the wooden floor trading company are being given up to three tickets a week and Mr Gumbrell said he received five in one week.

He said frustrated workers wasted up to an hour every morning searching for spaces. He admitted they parked on double yellow lines because they needed their cars for showing samples to customers.

Mr Gumbrell and other traders in Hove are worried a restricted parking scheme due to come into force this summer will drive them out of business.

He said: "I am sure there are other companies who will also have to leave. Is the council trying to drive out local businesses altogether?"

A spokeswoman for Brighton and Hove Council said the scheme would make parking easier.

She said: "The council is aware businesses and residents have problems finding parking spaces. That is why a controlled parking scheme is proposed."