CUT price parking, to help relieve the 'blight' of Teignmouth residents living in the town centre, is one of the ideas being pursued by local councillors.
They are concerned about the problems both for locals and visitors in finding somewhere to park, especially in the summer period.
The town council's finance and general purposes committee has set up a working party to look into the thorny topic in depth, and come up with suggestions for improvement.
The debate was sparked off by a proposal from Cllr Martin Bladon to ease the car parking headache for people living in the heart of the town south of the railway line.
He favoured asking Teignbridge Council to issue special tickets for qualifying residents to be able to park off-season in car parks for double the normal limit, but at the same price.
It would in effect be a 50 per cent reduction from September to May, and would be some help to beleaguered town centre residents.
Committee chairman Cllr Don Baldey lives in Northumberland Place, and has first hand experience of the difficulty in parking near his home. The daytime limit in the street was an hour, which meant frequently moving to another space.
He complained that at Easter a van parked outside his house from Thursday to Monday, without being given a ticket, and he had taken up the matter with the Teignbridge parking department.
The matter of the £550 for a dedicated parking space needed to be addressed, because it was an 'outrageous' amount that few would pay.
Shoppers coming into the town centre and visitors were well catered for with limited parking, but for those who lived in the centre, it was a huge problem.
Cllr David Cox said it was difficult to justify a large capital investment in car parks for just a few weeks of the year, and he pointed out that he and county councillor Chris Bray had identified several places where extra on-street parking could be added.
'We have to accept that there are no easy answers to this, especially in the season,' he said.
The relaxation of planning rules so that some in-town homes did not necessarily have to provide parking spaces, along with building a supermarket at the Higher Brook Street car park, was blamed by Cllr Vince Fusco for contributing to the congestion.
He warned that the parking shortage was hitting the tourist trade.
Members praised Cllr Bladon for his 'fresh thinking' on the problem, but wanted any review to be broadened out to encompass the whole of the town.
Cllr Ian Parkes, who lives in Salisbury Terrace, quoted the example of people leaving their vehicles in the road for up to two weeks while they went on holiday, or caught trains.
'They would not like it if people parked outside their homes,' he said. 'We have been messing about with this problem for 20 years. Other places have residents' parking permits, but we are told we are not allowed to have that scheme in Teignmouth.'
He pointed out that streets outside the town centre were also affected, with workers and commuters leaving their cars all day or longer, much to the annoyance of residents.
Cllr Geoff Bladon added that five years ago they almost had a residents' permit system, but at the last moment it was vetoed by the county council.
'Some time ago I suggested putting another deck at Quay Road which would have given up to 300 extra spaces, but it was turned down because it would block the views from houses.
'Residents should be able to park outside their own homes. Chevron parking, as they have on the seafront, would treble the number of spaces.'
Cllr Terry Falcao believed the problem 'blighted the lives' of many town centre residents, and the public should be consulted in any review carried out, because they often came up with very good ideas.
And Cllr James McMurray urged that local councillors who knew the town should make the running by informing the district and county councils what needed doing to alleviate the congestion.