PARKING attendants are struggling to cope with problems caused by the huge influx of visitors trying to make their way to the beach during the heatwave.

A total of 700 parking tickets were issued in Bournemouth over two days at the weekend - around three times the usual figure. Many were given to people who had just abandoned their cars on double yellow lines near the seafront.

Black spots included Durley and Alum Chines, Bath Road and The Marina in Boscombe. There were also several complaints about drives and emergency vehicle accesses being blocked.

On Sunday afternoon, police were called to remove a car blocking an access road for emergency vehicles behind the BIC.

Gerry Bolland, enforcement and parking manager for Bournemouth Council, said that many motorists could have saved themselves the £30 penalty - £60 of they fail to pay within 14 days - if they had been prepared to walk a few more minutes.

"We had a situation at one point where, despite the amount of on-street parking going on, the majority of big car parks were empty," he said.

"Sunday was the busier day, but we still had availability in on or two of the car parks just a way back from the beach."

Mr Bolland added: "There's a mindset, particularly among people coming in from the Home Counties. They will ask whether we do clamping and removal in Bournemouth, and we don't.

"If there are four of them in the car, they will just leave it and pay the fine."

With three shifts a day, between 18 and 20 attendants were out on the streets at any one time on mobile and foot patrol. "If we'd had twice the number of parking attendants we wouldn't have been able to make an impact on the numbers we were dealing with," said Mr Bolland.

He hinted that Bournemouth may look at implementing its powers to clamp and remove vehicles in busy periods.

Mr Bolland urged motorists not to ignore parking restrictions, pointing out that there were 10,000 spaces in the town's car parks, mostly in or near the centre.

"The car parks are here and they have capacity, so use them. Just spend an extra five minutes walking to the beach rather than abandoning your vehicle in places where it will inconvenience and cause danger to other people," he pleaded.

Mr Bolland revealed that the town's parking attendants were being issued with water and sunscreen to ward off the effects of the sun.

In Poole on Sunday, parking attendants dished out triple the normal number of tickets.

Over the two days 219 illegally parked motorists were slapped with a fine.

This equated to 113 on Saturday and 106 on Sunday. Over a normal weekend attendants will expect to issue in the region of 90 tickets on Saturdays and 35 on Sundays.