FED-up residents in one of Hampshire's most exclusive roads have hired a clamping company to stop people parking near their homes.

The Sleepers Hill Residents' Association in Winchester is paying the company to clamp and then tow away rogue parkers.

Staff from Car Park Security are patrolling the private road, where houses can cost more than £1m, between 9am and 5pm each day.

Drivers are warned to park there at their peril. One student has already been hit with a bill of more than £400 after leaving his car on the roadside for a couple of hours.

The clampers are charging non-permit holders £100 to have the device removed. If the car is towed away it costs an extra £250, plus £25 for every day the car is impounded.

Residents say they have resorted to clamping because other measures - including putting up large "No Parking" signs - had not deterred people. It is thought they have paid about £6 per household to pay for the scheme.

Jeremy Ouvry, chairman of the residents' association, said: "We entered into this with considerable reluctance but the parking problem was getting positively dangerous."

He declined to say how much the operation was costing, saying it was a private matter.

Resident Martin Tucker said: "The clamping is necessary really. Otherwise the road is used as a public car park."

Flick Drummond, of Sleepers Hill Gardens, said people working at, or visiting, nearby Hampshire Ambulance Headquarters at Highcroft and University College Winchester had been parking at the top and bottom of the road, obscuring the view for people trying to get in and out.

"It was extremely dangerous," she said.

Mike Sollom, of Sleepers Hill Gardens, added: "We've tried everything, even putting messages on cars. This is a last resort, a desperate measure.

"And it has been a lot better in the last few weeks since the clamping was introduced."

University student Oliver Abrahams fell victim to the scheme on its first day.

He said: "It was awful. The number on the sign goes to a mobile. They didn't answer for two days and I couldn't get my car back. It was impounded for three days."

Martin Rennison, president of the students' union, said students now were struggling to find parking spaces in the city.

"The parking around Winchester is atrocious but I do understand residents not liking people parking on their road,'' he said.

"But what I don't find acceptable is the method and organisation they are using. Charging someone £400 is an unacceptable amount of money."

A spokesman for Car Park Security said it wasn't unusual for private roads which are the responsibility of residents - not the highway authority - to introduce clamping measures.

The cost of a scheme would depend on the size of the road and the level of service residents wanted.

The service is being paid for from the residents' association's funds.

One resident we spoke to said it was costing about £6 per household to have the clamping for a year.