CAMPAIGNING by Rose Hill residents has been praised after it led to 36 flats being given new parking spaces.

The flats in Oxford Road were built long before the days when every family owned a car.

But in recent years parking in the area had become increasingly problematic as more and more vehicles vied for limited space.

After requests from residents, the estate's city councillor Ed Turner spoke to Oxford City Council and secured the new spaces.

He said: "We have got 36 flats there and nowadays people often own a car and that means there was a chronic shortage of parking.

"That made it difficult for vehicles to manoeuvre.

"Residents suggested to me that we could use some ground that had previously been used as a builders' compound and that has now been done.

"The work should solve the parking problems there and it is an example of good ideas coming from local issues being brought forward by residents and councillors."

The money for the improvements came from the city council's 'great estates' programme which is investing £1.2m a year into the city's housing estates in the next four years.

The new community centre in Carole's Way, Rose Hill, is a bigger example of how the money can be spent, alongside smaller projects such as the new parking spaces.

Mr Turner said: "Parking of course is a problem all around Oxford and particularly where you have got flats and maisonettes.

"A lot of those streets were not designed with cars in mind.

"As part of the great estates programme we want to improve parking as far as we can across the city.

"It is funded from tenants' rent money."

Mr Turner, who is also deputy leader of the council, said people should make sure they made their feelings known about how the money should be spent in order to improve their areas.

He said: "It made a lot of sense really and I would encourage people to come forward with ideas like that because we have the budget to improve the estates and this is part of that.

"It is a happy story for people in Rose Hill."

Rose Hill Tenants' and Residents' Committee chairman Terry Kirkby said: "These parking spaces are something which the community as well as us as an association have tried to have installed for some time.

"Hopefully in the future there will be more provision made for the people in the flats.

"They are good, really good but there needs to be more of them."