Free parking is driven out

The city council said property developers had been guilty of "misleading" buyers in the past about securing a space along with their new home.

Now the council is set to stake its claim to hundreds of spaces, making them part of the city's controlled parking zone.

There are understood to be 17 such developments across the city where council chiefs plan to take away private parking as part of the deal for adopting the road.

Residents at one development in Powderhall Village, who had brought in a private parking firm and had been handing out 85 parking tickets to anyone parked illegally, are among those who will now have to buy permits.

Councillor Gordon Mackenzie, the city's transport convener, said: "Unfortunately, we have a situation where house buyers have been misled by developers or selling agents.

"We have made an offer to the residents of Powderhall Village that, should they accept, would protect the area from an influx of commuter parking."

The move is likely to be unpopular with residents who are now set to face the same problems with parking as elsewhere in the city. Writer Roddy Martine, chairman of the Powderhall Village Owners' Association, said the council's behaviour had been "scandalous".

He said: "This situation has gone on for eight years. One of the reasons I came here was on the understanding that we had residents' parking."

He said any decision would be hugely unpopular.

He added: "To be honest, this is the sort of high-minded stuff that is driving people out of the city."

Mr Martine said he feared the council move was designed to raise more revenue through parking tickets.

Earlier this month, it emerged parking fines in the Capital are set to be raised to 80 in a move designed to tackle the worst offenders and boost council coffers.