WINCHESTER has claimed another first, but it is one it is unlikely to boast about.

It is the first city in the country to consume its share of the Earth's resources for the entire year, according to a new report.

The Hampshire county town will go into ecological debt' today says the WWF-UK, formerly the World Wildlife Fund.

WWF-UK claims for the rest of the year residents will be contributing to unsustainable living that is putting major pressure on the Earth.

Among the major impacts that Winchester residents have is their high level of commuting and foreign air travel.

The lifestyle of Wintonians is such that they would need three-and-a-half planets to sustain the amount of resources they use.

Colin Butfield, head of campaigns at WWF-UK, said: "Even the most green city resident can, on average, only reduce their footprint by one third - moving from a UK average of a three planet lifestyle to a two planet lifestyle. This clearly indicates that the one planet challenge is not just about consumers - government and business must also play their part to avoid the most devastating impacts on the environment."

The data comes from a WWF report, Ecological Footprint of British City Residents, which calculated the average ecological footprint of cities' residents.

An individual's ecological footprint relates to the land and sea area required to provide food, resources and energy, as well as absorb waste and pollution. The main factors affecting this are housing, food, consumer goods, public and private services and transport.

Winchester came out top of the 61 cities whose residents had their footprint calculated in the report.