COUNTY Hall bosses are drawing up plans to arm Lancashire's new army of traffic wardens with wheel clamps, it was revealed today.

A memo obtained by the Lancashire Evening Telegraph reveals plans to give the parking attendants the power to clamp the cars of 'persistent' offenders.

A new army of 100 traffic wardens will hit the streets from September, when a partnership of Lancashire County Council and local authorities takes control of parking enforcement from police.

Unlike the fixed penalty notices scheme, which will see people fined £60, clamping fines have to be paid on the spot in order for the vehicle to be released.

In Westminster - which, like Lancashire, uses parking company National Car Parks to provide the service - the fine for removing a clamp is £65.

A spokesman for the RAC Foundation said: "This conjures images of traffic wardens hiding behind corners, spotting a driver and then clamping their car.

"The reason for decriminalised parking is supposed to be that it clears the roads, improves traffic flow and reduces accidents.

"Clamping a car means the vehicle is there longer, because it takes longer to remove.

"It seems as though this is going to become the next speed cameras, supposedly for safety, but really for making money."

Leader of the Conservatives in Burnley, Coun Peter Doyle, said: "I'm not against parking attendants being issued with wheel clamps per se, but if the cars are just going to be clamped rather than towed away that is hardly going to help the traffic flow in the town, which is one of the objects of the scheme.

"Cars left where they are clamped to continue to cause an obstruction seems to defeat the object."

Hyndburn Council leader Peter Britcliffe said: "The scheme in danger of falling out of favour with the public because of the heavy-handed attitude of the county council.

"I am all in favour of the scheme, but drivers who get ticketed will get the message. There is no need for anything else."

Last month, the Lancashire Evening Telegraph revealed how councils planned to keep council tax down by using earnings from the car parks to fund certain services.

Under the new scheme, there will be one fixed penalty fine level of £60 for on-street and off-street parking offences. That means that, in many boroughs, overstaying in a pay-and-display car park for five minutes will lead to a fine double of what it used to be, with the heavy reductions for immediate payment scrapped.

Details of the wheel clamping proposal are in a question and answer document released by the county council to district councils.

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said: "Clamping will be seen as a last resort.

"It is a power we have as part of this scheme but one which will only be used on persistent offenders."