MOTORISTS will be blitzed in a crackdown by police and a hit-squad of traffic wardens.

Drivers who leave their vehicles on yellow lines, clogging town centres, are to be targeted under the initiative.

The plan was unveiled by the New Forest's senior police officer, Superintendent David Ball, who told the New Forest police and community liaison committee there would be times when the Forest's seven traffic wardens would be called in from their individual towns to work together as a team.

"We have got traffic wardens in isolated towns across the Forest and what I have said to my inspectors in those towns is that when you've got a problem and complaints about parking, it is not beyond our capability to get them together and take them to blitz the area where the complaints are.

"Obviously, they will use their discretion, but where people are flagrantly breaking the parking regulations, they will be given a ticket," he said.

Wardens are based individually in Ringwood, Fordingbridge, New Milton, Lymington, Lyndhurst, Hythe and Totton.

Supt Ball's revelation came after complaints by a Lymington resident about particular people in the town repeatedly ignoring yellow lines and obstructing certain areas of the High Street. There were even complaints that a pedestrian crossing had been blocked on market days.

Another potential trouble spot is at Hythe, where short-term parking - particularly close to cash machines on a narrow road used by large buses and delivery lorries - is a regular occurrence.

Problems outside schools could also come under the spotlight. The superintendent said: "We would not want to ticket all the mums taking their children to school, but there are obviously some particularly bad examples which do need to be dealt with."

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