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Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council is considering whether to allow residents to apply for on street permits to deter streets being clogged with cars.
This would see drivers without a permit slapped with a parking ticket. Restrictions would mostly be from 8am to 6pm.
Yet the council said it has limited cash to set up the £12,000-a-time schemes, which would have to cover several streets to be more cost efficient.
One option suggested by council officers is to charge residents £65 to £75 a year, including a £40 to £50 set-up cost and “administration fee” of £25.
Requests for permit schemes have already been made from residents of streets including Station Road and St Johns Close in Knowle and Grove Avenue in Solihull.
Yet only four have been earmarked as suitable for the schemes, Grove Road/Broomfields Close, Lighthorne Road, Greenhill Way and Crabtree Drive.
One area, Highfield in Widney Manor, got the permits in March 2010, for Kilsby Grove, Austcliff Drive, Sevington Close and Thorngrove Avenue.
This followed concerns about Widney Manor Station commuters leaving their cars in the streets, a problem that has hit Dorridge homeowners.
Some 22 per cent of homes, 26 out 118 took up the offer, and the scheme cost the council £11,245 against £680 paid by permit holders.
It said good off street parking was a reason for the low uptake and less parking tickets had been given out, suggesting non-residents straight away.
A council report said permits could help deal with the “considerable” number of requests it receives to control parking.
This is otherwise dealt with by single or double yellow lines or Prohibition of Driving Orders, which bans access apart from for residents.
The latter can only be enforced by the police, yet the report says: “Due to resource issues, the introduction of further Prohibition of Driving Orders within Solihull is no longer supported by the police.”
And the council said the cost of permit schemes would see few put in place if the council – which is slashing its total budget by 10 per cent - had to meet the bill.
The report says there is “considerable pressure on existing budget areas from which future schemes could be funded”.
Schemes “would not be possible unless identified work commitments were re-prioritised or the level of funding available is increased”.
Extra cash is “unlikely to prove possible in the current economic climate”.
The options will be put to the Neighbourhood Services Scrutiny Board for comment on Wednesday. For more details click here.
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