In three of the town's streets alone, the Chronicle & Echo yesterday found 39 cars for sale, with 20 in East Park Parade, Kingsley, 15 along the stretch of Wellingborough Road between Lime Avenue and Beech Avenue, and four in Mill Lane, Semilong.

Councillor Richard Church (Lib Dem, Kingsthorpe) revealed Northamptonshire County Council was now looking at introducing time-restricted parking bays along East Park Parade, between The White Elephant and The Picturedrome pubs, later this year.

He said the measure would only be enforced during weekdays, adding: "We would hope that it would be done with minimal inconvenience to residents."

Current powers only allow action to be taken if two or more vehicles for sale can be proven to be owned by the same person.

However, this is often impossible because the mobile phone numbers displayed in vehicles tend to be different.

At the beginning of 2007, time restrictions were introduced to a stretch of Wellingborough Road opposite Tesco Express, but it appears the problem has only been moved elsewhere, with the stretch of road next to Abington Park becoming one of the latest hotspots.

Abington Park Nursery has complained to the council because the unwanted cars have led to parents having trouble parking.

On Monday there were 22 cars at that location.

Northampton Borough Council leader Tony Woods (Lib Dem, St Davids) said the authority was doing all it could to solve the problem.

He said: "The powers we have are really not strong enough to be effective. We can move it around but if a car is taxed and insured it can park legally.

"We are investigating local bylaws but at the moment it's extremely difficult."

Last month, Kate Connell, secretary of Far Cotton Residents Association, said she had had success by tackling the problem with the help of neighbourhood wardens, despite no powers existing in Northampton to punish the car dealers.

She told the Chron: "What I find sometimes works is to get a neighbourhood warden to have a quiet word. Although they don't have any direct power to stop car sales, they can hand out fines if the road tax is out of date, for example."