POOLE has no plans to follow Norwich council's example and link the cost of parking permits to the length of residents' cars.

But the Borough of Poole, which operates several residents' parking schemes across the borough, admits it is considering ways of making major polluters pay more.

Norwich's controversial new scheme will see residents charged according to their cars' dimensions, with vehicles divided into three bands.

Any car longer than 14ft 7ins will be in the highest category, bumping up the cost of a parking permit by 90 per cent.

Fees will also rise for the middle band of cars over 12ft 10ins while all smaller cars will enjoy a price freeze.

Several town halls across the country are believed to be watching the experiment, with a view to following suit.

But Cllr Mike White, Poole's cabinet portfolio holder for transportation services, said he did not think it was the ideal scheme.

"It is extremely difficult to use car size as an indicator for permit prices as, due to advances in technology, many larger modern cars have lower CO2 levels than older smaller cars," he said.

"We are currently considering how best to adapt our transportation policies to better reflect people's differing carbon footprint on our environment but at the present time no decision has been taken with regard to changing our permit prices."