Residents' Parking Charges in Oxford - letter to Oxford Mail

12.04.38pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 18th Apr 2006

Labour leaflets in North Oxford claim that I support charges for residents' parking permits in Oxford. Giles Sheldrick's article (Oxford Mail April 17) claims that I am against charges. Neither is correct.

I support consulting people on whether there should be charges. When the consultation is complete, I will decide whether to support the proposed charges.

The County Council is currently not charging for on-street parking in the evenings and on Sundays, even though there are enforcement costs to be met. It would be unfair to charge residents for enforcement, but not charge visitors. However the present free parking is only a pilot scheme and may be discontinued after six months.

There are already charges for such permits in Abingdon and Henley and the costs of administration and enforcement in Oxford are already large and will become larger if new Controlled Parking Zones are introduced in Oxford. The schemes could be made more helpful to residents by the issuing of reminders and more flexibility in both resident (eg allowing hire cars to have a permit) and visitor permits, but these improvements would increase the costs.

The County Council is considering extending the Special Parking Area of Oxford and Hinksey to cover the whole County. The cost of this extension will not be met from any income from charges in Oxford, which would be used simply to pay for administration and enforcement within Oxford.

Cllr Dermot Roaf