More than 6,500 Lambeth residents are saving money and helping the environment by being members of car club schemes.

Lambeth Council now wants to encourage more people to sign up by providing a further 80 dedicated parking spaces now with a view to creating a further 200 in the next two years. Those spaces would take the number of bays to 346 - there were just two in 2006.

Nigel Haselden, Lambeth Council deputy cabinet member for sustainability, said: "As the number of car club parking bays grow, more and more Lambeth residents are finding there is a club car parked around the corner from where they live.

"I gave up my own car in 2006 and the saving in running costs allowed me to join a car club, buy a family railcard, as well as a new bicycle each for my wife and son. I can also take the occasional taxi and still be quids in at the end of the year."

The clubs, which allow members to hire cars parked locally on a pay-as-you-go basis, have grown in popularity nationwide. Lambeth was one of the first areas in the country to get involved.

Brett Akker, founder of Streetcar, the UK's largest car club which was started in Lambeth and is now based in Wimbledon, said: "Streetcar’s rise in popularity in Lambeth has surpassed even our most ambitious expectations. It’s clear that both the recession and the rising cost of owning a car are encouraging people to look for money-saving alternatives.”

Since 2007 there has been a 750 per cent increase in participation in the borough, helping to ease congestion and pollution as well as freeing up parking spaces and saving members an average of £2,000 a year.

It is estimated that every car club car takes around 14 privately owned vehicles off the roads.