Controlled Parking Zone protest
25 March 2010, 07:49 | Updated: 25 March 2010, 13:51
A protest's taken place over plans to charge people in part of East Oxford £50 a year to park outside their home.
Some people are unhappy about Oxfordshire County Council's plans to introduce a Controlled Parking Zone in the Magdalen Road area. It would mean they would only be able to allow visitors to park outside their homes once a week.
Council bosses want to bring in the CPZ because of concerns commuters are using the area to park, taking up spaces for locals. More than 60% of people in the area have told council bosses they have objections to the proposals, with many denying commuter parking is an issue.
Oxfordshire County Council have put off making a decision on whether to bring in the Magdalen Road CPZ, and have decided to carry out more consultation work to see if people living in the area really want it.
Campaigners against the plans staged a protest outside County Hall on Thursday 25 March 2010, when transport bosses met to discuss the issue.
Emmet Spier thinks the CPZ could cause problems for his family: "The zone is a 24 hour zone so if we use a babysitter and they drive in we'll have to get a visitors permit and we only have a limited number of them."
Other campaigners claim they will have to pay £50 a year with no guarantee of getting a space.
A significant number of other people say they are in favour of the proposals though.
Mum Alison Chisem thinks the number of cars parked in the area is a big problem: "Walking up and down the street, quite frequently I have to either push my buggy or walk with my son in the road because cars are parked badly on the pavement or they're parked right across the pavement at junctions. It just makes it dangerous."
A decision on whether to bring in the Magdalen CPZ will be made once the new consultation's take place. Plans to bring in a Controlled Parking Zone in the nearby Divinity Road has already been agreed, but that can only go ahead if Magdalen Road is also made a CPZ.