The city council is currently consulting with locals in the Grange over the introduction of a controlled parking zone.

The scheme, which is an extension of the restrictions brought in elsewhere in the city, seeks to use residents' permits and pay-and-display to prevent drivers using the area as an "informal park-and-ride".

But some homeowners say the restrictions will force them to give up parking spaces which are contained in their title deeds.

Frith Hoehnke, chairman of the Oswald Court Proprietors' Association, said: "The private car parking areas of Oswald Court, together with all the grassed and landscaped areas, are the property of the owners of these houses.

"The private parking areas have not been adopted by the council. The residents do not want the land in question to be subject to compulsory purchase or otherwise dispossessed from them by the city."

In a letter sent to residents, the council acknowledged that the proposal for controlled parking in the S6 zone included a number of streets considered "private parking areas".

The council conceded parking areas in Oswald Court, Blackford Bank, Grange Manor and Trotter Haugh are privately maintained but said they remain part of the city's road network.

In 2006, the controlled parking zone (CPZ) was extended for the first time since 1974.

Local councillors and residents had requested parking controls to combat problems with commuters using residential streets, making it difficult for local residents and their visitors to find parking.

However, some of the restrictions had to be extended when the problem moved to other parts of the city.

Jim Ramsay, owner of The Avenue Store in Blackford Avenue, said: "There are no parking restrictions at all just now and it will change the feel of the area. There's plenty of space on the street at the moment and we don't have any parking problems."

Kate Arnott, of Grange and Prestonfield Community Council, said the CPZ proposals had attracted a good deal of attention in the area, with over 300 people attending two public meetings on the scheme.

"Opinion is balanced in the area," she said. "At the last meeting we had 180 people, and at the one before that there were 140."

A council spokeswoman said: "We are consulting on a traffic regulation order that would introduce parking controls in the Grange area."