ENVIRONMENTAL activists have formed a nationwide network to target celebrity owners of “gas-guzzling” 4x4 vehicles such as the actress Felicity Kendal and Chris Eubank, the former boxer.

The organisation, an alliance of nearly 1,000 members from groups including Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, the Green party and Transport 2000, claim that the vehicles are unnecessarily large, use excessive fuel and clog up urban streets.

They have posted 40,000 imitation “parking tickets” on 4x4s, attacking their use in cities. Among those targeted are the former Citizen Smith actor Robert Lindsay and David and Victoria Beckham.

Gail Porter, the television presenter — who is understood to own a Jeep Grand Cherokee — and Cheryl Tweedy, singer with the band Girls Aloud who bought a large Toyota last year, are also in the alliance’s sights.

The colourful tickets, placed under windscreen wipers by more than 400 volunteers, are part of a growing campaign against what are nicknamed “Chelsea tractors” and “Satan’s runabouts”.

In America the anti-4x4 movement is more established. Tactics have included setting light to the vehicles, dousing them in acid, putting nails and screws under wheels and painting the outline of dead bodies on an owner’s driveway.

In Britain their most vociferous critics include Ken Livingstone, the London mayor, who has written to the government saying it should consider charging the vehicles higher taxes. He has branded their drivers “complete idiots”.

The 4x4s, also known as sports utility vehicles (SUVs), were designed for off-road use but are increasingly bought as a fashionable urban accessory. Mothers with children often use them because they believe them to be safe, while others buy them to impress.

Last year sales of 4x4s in Britain grew by 12.8% to 179,439, more than double the number sold a decade ago. Recent research in America has shown that someone struck by a 4x4 is more than twice as likely to die as someone struck by a saloon car.

The imitation tickets are modelled on the design of parking tickets used by local authorities. One reads “Poor vehicle choice” at the top. Another, under a crest similar to that of the City of Westminster, has the word “Wastemonster”. The Kensington and Chelsea version reads “Congestion and Asthma”.

In Somerset, 4x4 owners are taking preventive measures after a spate of night-time attacks on more than 30 vehicles, in which vandals slashed tyres. The alliance strongly denies any involvement in this.

However, Sian Berry, a spokeswoman, confirmed that the group was targeting anyone who owned a 4x4 vehicle and “didn’t have an excuse to go off-road”. She added: “A lot of footballers have them and we want to name and shame them.

“Off-roaders have become a fashion statement and there are far too many in the public eye. There are very few people in cities who genuinely need one. Most of these cars have seen less off-road action than your average pram.”

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