City-dwellers will be saved the inconveniences of parking and maintenance by a new car hire club.

Streetcar, which already operates 40 car depots across London, is extending its operation to Brighton.

Under the scheme drivers can pick up a car from a number of points around the city and use them for as long or short a time as they wish.

Members pay a one-off joining fee of £25 and then are billed purely for the length of time they use the car. Access to the company's fleet of Volkswagen Golfs is through a smartcard which can be used in any of their cars at any pick-up point.

Founder of the company Andrew Valentine, 31, said: "People get all the convenience of owning their own car but without the problems of parking and the running costs.

"They can pick up a car within five minutes walk of their house, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without having to queue up or fill-out paperwork."

The company, set up in April last year, has 2,500 users at the moment and projects that number to have grown to 20,000 by 2007 with schemes running in several more UK towns and cites.

Mr Valentine said: "We see that there's going to be a demand for our services wherever you get a large urban population, severe parking problems and people fed up with paying to run their cars - which is in most British cities."

The AA estimates the average annual cost of running and owning a VW Golf to be £2,749. Streetcar say usage charges for similar use of use of their cars come to £700 - a 75 per cent saving.

Carplus, the charity for promoting responsible car use, estimates there are currently 27 car clubs in the UK with 4,000 users sharing 237 cars.

Phillip Igoe, co-director of Carplus said: "The last two years have moved very, very fast with the set-up of Street Car and several other operators.

"The main plus point for users is the saving in car maintenance costs many people can save several thousand pounds a year by replacing their car with car club membership.

"But the environmental benefits are phenomenal. We estimate that one car-club car means four to five fewer privately owned cars on the road - carbon emissions from cars can be reduced by up to 70 per cent."

The east and west coasts of the US have seen a fast growth in similar ventures in the past four years with more than 75,000 users of car clubs.