CENTRO are set to clamp down on selfish motorists who abuse the park and ride scheme at Stourbridge Junction.

They plan to impose penalties on inconsiderate drivers who are parking illegally at the popular railway station.

Centro will start issuing £60 fines from September and offenders will have 28 days to pay before the fee is doubled to £120.

Parking officers will begin patrolling the site and all money raised from fines will go towards the cost of running the enforcement scheme.

The crackdown follows a spate of incidents which has seen scores of motorists blocked in.

Cllr Roger Horton, Centro's lead member for rail, insisted: "This is not a money-making measure. It's being done to tackle a serious problem because some of the parking we have seen has been, quite frankly, atrocious.

"The actions of a selfish few cause great inconvenience for the many passengers who park responsibly.

"Park and ride has been a real success story in encouraging people to use public transport and a minority of people cannot be allowed to detract from it."

Such is the popularity of the scheme at Stourbridge Junction that most parking places are full by 8am on week days.

This has led to repeated incidents of people parking on grass verges, pavements, double yellow lines and even in disabled bays, because no spaces have been available.

As a result, there are plans to increase the number of parking places by an extra 180 spaces with land earmarked for development further back towards Rufford Road.

The work has already been put out to tender and is expected to start this autumn.

A total of £2million has been put aside for the work as part of the local pinch-point scheme which is designed to remove bottlenecks from the local highway.

Stourbridge Junction is one of three stations in line for further extension of its park and ride scheme along with Kings Norton and Sutton Coldfield.

Work is already underway to improve facilities at nearby Rowley Regis.