Residents are furious that they are being wheel-clamped for parking in spaces outside their homes in Oxford.

Cherwell Housing Trust has told tenants of flats at 106 Bullingdon Road, in Cowley, that they must not to use parking bays belonging to an adjacent block of flats it owns.

Contractors are clamping cars parked there without permission and charging residents £70 to unlock their cars.

Emma Williams, 23, said she had been parking in the off-street spaces outside the flats since she moved in two years ago.

She said: "I think it's disgusting. We were told to get permits and park on the street instead, but it's not safe to park out there. My car's been vandalised twice.

"It's not very nice with a young child having to drive around at night finding a parking space."

Housing trust spokesman Caroline Abomeli said: "It was a planning permission condition set out by Oxford City Council when our homes were established in 2003 that we wouldn't have any parking, so Cherwell Housing Trust is simply enforcing that condition.

"We regret any inconvenience this causes, but we are simply following regulations."

The parking spaces are to the rear of the block of flats, but Ms Abomeli said planning consent was granted on condition that the spaces were only used by the residents of the next-door block, 111-118, also owned by Cherwell.

She said: "Even if the residents of 111-118 did say it was OK to use them, we're not allowed to let them."

City councillor Sid Francis, who represents the St Mary's ward, said there were no planning conditions that prevented residents from parking in the spaces.

He said: "It will be interesting to find out why Cherwell want to deny parking to the residents of 106. Certainly there aren't any planning conditions that prevent it.

"It only seems right and fair that the people who live there would be able to park in them."