Motorists face fines of up to £600 for mounting the kerbs outside their homes.

Southend Council has sent letters out to homes across the borough warning families that unless they have dropped kerbs to access their drives, they cannot park there.

It has also told residents not to park on the pavement.

Residents in Highbank Close, Eastwood, recently received letters to warn them about the fines.

Many there are on low incomes and live in council houses, and say they cannot afford the changes necessary. They accused the authority of “getting money” out of the poor to pay for the upkeep of its highways.

Julie Armfield, 52, said: “There’s a man who has lived here for 60 years who says it’s always been like this but suddenly the council has started issuing these notices saying we are not allowed to mount the kerb because we will be damaging cables and pipes.

“They want everyone to pay out £175 for getting drawings done, then a further £125 for an inspection, a further £75 for an inspection after the work, and a minimum of £1,150 for the work itself.

“People around here are not in a financial position to do this but they’re not even letting them pay monthly – it all has to be upfront.

“They’re just trying to get money out of people who haven’t got it to pay for it for mistakes they’ve made.”

Janet Kelly, 43, added she felt the council was targeting residents while ignoring a potentially dangerous situation at the end of the road as it meets Eastwood Road North – close to the junction with the A127.

She said: “There should be double yellow lines at the end because people park on either side of the road there so you can’t see as you’re pulling out.

“There are accidents there all the time when people come off the A127 round the bend and, if you’re pulling out, you’re taking your life into your own hands.”

Kamran Hussein, 25, added he often had to park on Stonehill Road almost ten minutes’ walk away when coming home from work at night because he could no longer park in front of his house – not being able to afford a dropped kerb.

Earlier this year David Gordon of Bunters Avenue, Southend, was fined £582 including court costs for driving over the public highway and pavement to his home without a dropped kerb.

Southend's highways councillor has said the authority is cracking down on dropped kerbs to make up for shortfalls in its budget.

Martin Terry said the council spends £2million each year on repairing roads and pavements in the borough and having to balance this with reductions in funding from the government.

He said: “A proportion of this cost is to repair pavements that have been damaged by vehicles illegally crossing them or parking on them.

“Not only this is an enormous waste of public money, it is also unsafe as cracked pavements cause trips and falls - which themselves can lead to compensation claims against the council – and are a dangerous obstacle for partially-sighted and disabled people.

“At a time when we are receiving ever-reducing levels of funding from central government, it is only responsible that we try to stem this completely unnecessary expenditure so that we can sufficiently fund essential services, such as providing care, educating the borough’s children or planned highways infrastructure.

“The council takes breaches of the law seriously and will continue to take legal action where the law is repeatedly flouted.”