With the Christmas rush not yet in full flight, Kingston is already struggling to cope with the flood of shoppers driving into the town centre.

Shoppers have reported waits of up to an hour and a half to get into packed car parks, with queues clogging up the towns one-way system.

This is despite the excellent park-and-ride scheme which runs from Chessington to Kingston and attracts thousands of users over the festive period.

The problem has not been helped by the failure of council officers to repair the variable messaging systems which are meant to indicate the availability of spaces in different car parks in the town as people drive in.

Town centre manager, Graham McNally is watching the problem closely, in his first Christmas in the post, but is pleased with the vibrancy he has seen.

He said: I walk through Kingston every day and it is splendidly busy leading up to Christmas. In terms of parking, success is a difficult thing to manage.

The local authority is currently funding a traffic specialist looking at having a permanent park-and-ride in the town, which is great.

And new developments which will be popping up in the next year, such as the Rotunda and on the Skerne Road site, will no doubt add to the towns appeal to shoppers.

But Mr McNally and the council are keen to look on the bright side of the parking mayhem. Busy car parks means busy shops and that spells good news for the town.

The smart shopper this Christmas, and there are evidently lots of them, will take the park-and-ride into town.

More than 15,000 people have already taken advantage of the scheme in its first three weeks, nearly 25 per cent more than the same time last year.

Councillor Ian Reid wants people to consider taking the park-and-ride from Chessington World of Adventures to work every day, to further reduce the rush.

He said: It is free to park at CWA and it costs £1.20 return.

People can save a lot of money and do their bit to help the environment in the town centre.

By.David Rankin