Doctors' patients have reacted with fury after being clamped in a surgery car park.

Several people have been caught in a new crackdown at the Dipple Centre in Wickford Avenue, Pitsea, and have had to pay £80 to have the clamps removed.

One man with a heart condition is facing a bill for several hundred pounds after his car was towed away when he couldn't afford the release fee - and the bill is increasing at £25 a day.

The new clamping rules have only been in force for a month and were brought in by the Primary Care Trust - which owns the surgery - to prevent non-patients parking there.

A spokesman for Basildon Primary Care Trust who own the Dipple Centre said: "The clamping policy was put in place because the car park was being abused by non-patients.

"This created a lack of access for emergency vehicles and a parking problem for patients and staff.

"We are having a year's trial and if it solves the problem we will carry on using the system."

The clamping company, I.S. Traffic Management, has been operating at the centre for just one month.