Since it was first introduced in Old Portsmouth in 1999, the scheme has spread across the city to 26 areas – surrounded by controversy every step of the way.

Some drivers say it has solved their parking problems, while others think it is a council money-making exercise with little effect.

Now Councillor Lynne Stagg, Portsmouth City Council's new traffic and transport head, has changed the way the scheme is introduced to make sure more people have their say before finding themselves living in a restricted zone.

Until now 35 per cent of people living in an area had to respond to a survey asking whether they wanted the scheme.

And only 51 per cent of those needed to be in favour, meaning that even if less than one-fifth of residents responded with a 'yes' the scheme could get the go-ahead, regardless of what others thought.

Now 51 per cent of the people surveyed have to respond – and 51 per cent of those have to give the scheme the thumbs-up.

But for some who already live in restricted zones the move has come too late.

Jago Michell lives in Wilberforce Road, Southsea, where residents' parking was introduced almost two years ago.

The 42-year-old says: 'I do not believe residents' parking has helped the issue of vehicles in the city – it has just pushed them elsewhere.

'I have never had to walk more than about five minutes to my front door before or after residents' parking came in.

'I can park out of the permit zone and get home in quarter of an hour, but then I'm outside someone else's house, so where do they park?'

The scheme was introduced to target drivers who try to escape parking charges by avoiding car parks and using residential streets instead.

In some areas near busy shopping centres or hospitals, for example, traffic bosses claim it has been a great success.

In residential areas it has had little effect other than to shift the problem to neighbouring streets.

Jago adds: 'The whole thing is quite ridiculous and a further tax on people who can't afford it but need a car to work.'

Currently the first permit is free, but traffic chiefs came under fire earlier this year for doubling the price of a permit for a second car to £50 as part of the budget.

They claim the scheme is not for profit and any money collected is ploughed back into the costs of carrying out consultations, issuing permits and enforcement.

But opposition councillors say if it keeps spreading it could become another stealth tax.

Councillor Lee Hunt, Tory spokesman for traffic and transport, says: 'The way it is at the moment it is a dog's dinner. It's like they have used a hammer to crack a nut.

'It needed to be carefully and almost surgically spread out, like in the little streets off Albert Road where there was a real problem.

'But if the whole city ends up like it there is very little point – there will still be too many cars with not enough space.

'Then it becomes about generating revenue for the council.'

Under the current system the council only considers a residents' parking scheme if enough people write, phone or e-mail complaining about parking problems.

More and more areas next to existing residents' parking schemes are finding a problem with displacement – people who don't have permits for one street simply park in the next road where no scheme is in place.

Cllr Hunt adds: 'Displacement parking is the problem – it is what will lead to more and more areas having the scheme.

'Half of people really want it and half of people don't want it at all.

'There are still just as many cars on the road and if everybody in the area qualifies for a permit it will not make a blind bit of difference.

'Until we have fewer cars on the road there is not a cure.'

Cllr Stagg says she hopes to launch a review of the parking problems across the whole city – not just residents' parking schemes but also pay and display charging and hours of operation for car parks.

She says: 'Residents' parking is not an answer to the problem – when you only have it in a few streets of course it is going to have a knock-on effect in nearby streets.

'But this is not a council decision – the people who ask for it are the people who get it.'

She says the scheme is not about making money for the council.

'The £50 a year charge is less than £1 a week', she says. But one point of it is to discourage people from owning a second car.

'Given the rising cost of fuel people are getting rid of their second cars because they can't afford to keep them, and things like the residents' parking scheme help that.'

Click Next Page for more on how to suggest having a restricted parking zone in your street.