A HAMPSHIRE council is to hit dodgy parkers in the pocket by doubling fines.

Test Valley Borough Council has joined the nationwide push by local authorities to take over parking duties from police and its first action will be to raise fines from £30 to £60.

The news comes a day after the Daily Echo revealed that Southampton plans to double its parking fines and use closed circuit television to catch motorists who break the law.

Test Valley Borough Council has also vowed to scour the Test Valley from Andover to Romsey checking for illegally parked cars. They plan to employ more patrol officers as well.

Council leader Ian Carr said taking over parking would cost £120,000 in set-up costs but would start turning a profit after five years.

He said: "It will give us control over the whole of the borough and it will allow the police to get on with policing instead of traffic.

"We've obviously going to increase the number of patrol officers because we don't think it's being adequately controlled.

"You only have to go down the main street and you'll see cars on double lines, people just popping into banks and so on.

But he acknowledged that motorists were now in the sights of both the police and council.

"With all the cameras and the parking there is a lot of pressure but we are just trying to make it fairer for people using the car parking, and for pedestrians.

"There is also an early payment incentive of a 50 per cent discount if paid within 14 days."

But as for taking Southampton's lead and using CCTV cameras to catch illegal parking in the act, Cllr Carr was non-committal.

"We've got CCTV all around the town. I don't know if we'll extend it to cover parking though, I don't think we've got that far. It's going to take a couple of years for it to come in. It needs approval from the secretary of state first."