You are shopping when you receive a text message on your mobile phone. It is from the parking meter to tell you that you have been given a fine.

A science-fiction nightmare? No, this could soon be the reality of urban parking in Britain as technology already in use in France, where smart meters are flourishing, is introduced.

About 60 French councils have installed a system developed by Technolia, an engineering company, that detects the presence of vehicles and alerts police if drivers stay over their allotted time.

“We are revolutionising parking with the individual monitoring of spaces,” said Claude Zandona, the company's managing director.

The meters create magnetic fields capable of registering the metal mass of vehicles. They have a direct computer link to a police station.

Under a mechanism adopted by towns such as Issy-les-Moulineaux on the outskirts of Paris, cars are allowed 20 minutes of free parking. If they stay longer, the smart meter sends a message to a police control room, which alerts officers through their mobile telephones a quarter of an hour later.

“That way police and wardens don't have to spend the day walking up and down the road,” said Mr Zandona, who said he wanted to introduce the technology to Britain and a number of other countries.

“The police can go and sit in a café if they like and just pop out when they get a message to say a car is parked illegally. They have an 80 per cent chance of finding the car still there between 12 and 18 minutes after the limit, we have found. That's why we warn them after 15 minutes.”

Councils say the main intention behind using a 20-minute limit is to encourage a quick turnover of vehicles and generate increased custom for town centre shops.

Nicolas Deverre, the director of public space in Issy-les-Moulineaux, said: “We are not trying to crack down. Our aim is to liberate parking spaces in the town and offer a free service."

“It's the shopkeepers who are happy,” Mr Zandona said. “For them, it's a question of no parking, no business. So the bigger the turnover of vehicles, the better it will be for them.”

A variation of the smart meter has been introduced for disabled motorists, who are given a magnetic badge authorising them to park in designated spaces. When a driver without one of the badges parks in a bay reserved for the disabled, the meter automatically alerts police.

In France, where only one in five drivers bothers to pay for a parking ticket — partly because the fine is only €11 (£10) — the arrival of the meters signals something of a social upheaval.

Mr Zandona envisages a system in which motorists would pay with a personal identification number incorporated into their mobile telephones. “The meter would then send a text message to warn you five minutes before your time was up. You could buy more time through your phone if you wanted.

“But if you didn't, you'd get another message to say you'd overstayed and been fined.”

He said the fines could be sent directly to drivers' homes, reducing or even eliminating the need for wardens.

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