The most likely street for drivers to receive a parking fine in Oxford – with more than 1,600 tickets handed out last year - has been revealed.
St Giles topped the list for on-street parking penalties. There were 948 tickets issued for parking without displaying a valid sticker, and 653 charges for exceeding the time paid for.
Drivers, who are only allowed to stay for a maximum of two hours, are charged £6 an hour between 8am and 6.30pm, or for any length of stay between 6.30pm and 10pm.
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A freedom of information request submitted by the Oxford Mail revealed 41,667 parking fines were issued in the city by Oxfordshire County Council – which administers on-street parking – last year.
That does not include fines dished out to users of off-street pay-and-display car parks, which are either run privately or by the city council.
Hotelier Jeremy Mogford, who owns the Old Bank Hotel, and The Old Parsonage and Gees restaurants in Banbury Road, said penalising motorists was “terminally damaging the city from a commercial point of view”.
He said: “The parking regulations in Oxford are out of control. They’re driving people away. It all needs rethinking, it’s all over the place and it’s all in a desperate attempt to make money. They’re going hell for leather giving out tickets left, right, and centre.
“We have all these fines issued for aggressive and nasty reasons and it’s a horrific situation and it’s really damaging. People will say they don’t go to Oxford anymore as it’s too difficult to get into and to park due to bus gates and LTNs and closed off roads.
“The message it sends is, ‘let’s go to Bicester, or Witney, or Milton Keynes, or even Bath’. The whole thing is crazy and it’s very depressing. I’ve said it before but the council completely takes businesses for granted – just look at the number of empty retail properties in Oxford now.”
The most common offence in Oxford was parking on restricted streets, including residents parking zones, without displaying a permit. That brought 12,401 tickets issues.
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Leopold Street, in East Oxford, saw the most fines for failing to display a permit, with 557 tickets issued, followed by nearby Divinity Road with 476 and Southfield Road with 362.
The second most common offence was parking for longer than permitted, with 7,427 fines issued in 2021.
Cheney Lane in Headington, was the worst hotspot, with 403 tickets, followed by Banbury Road with 232, and Little Clarendon Street in Jericho, with 197.
Parking in a restricted street outside permitted hours was the third most common offence, with 7,043 tickets issued – with Hockmore Lane in Cowley seeing the most tickets, at 649, followed by Cheney Lane with 242 tickets, and Between Towns Road, also in Cowley, with 231 tickets.
Parking without displaying a ticket was the fourth most common offence with 4,460 fines issued, with the top trouble spots being St Giles, with 948 fines, followed by Broad Street with 857, and Parks Road with 616.
Parking on a cycling way was the least common offence, with only one driver being fined last year – in Walton Street. Jericho.
Four drivers were fined for re-parking in the same parking space within an hour and 27 drivers were fined for parking in an electric space without charging.
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Other offences included parking incorrectly, which saw 396 tickets issued, parking in a taxi rank, with 628 fines, and 221 tickets for parking at a bus stop.
A total of 2,357 drivers were fined for parking in a disabled space, with 264 of those issued in New Inn Hall Street in the city centre. Banbury Road saw the second most fines for parking in a disabled space, with 219, followed by London Road with 189.
Last year 480 vehicles were driven away while tickets were in the process of being handed out.
A spokesman for the county council said: “Drivers who follow the rules when it comes to parking have nothing to fear from enforcement officers, who help create safer roads and make traffic flow more freely by penalising motorists who park illegally, inconsiderately, and sometimes dangerously.
“Parking offences include overstaying in pay and display bays, double-parking, parking in disabled bays without a blue badge, and on yellow lines. They are enforced by a contractor on behalf of the council.
“They also enforce controlled parking zones, which were brought in to stop commuter parking from displacing residents’ vehicles. We would advise visitors to Oxford to use public transport where possible, particularly the Park & Ride sites, which offer plenty of parking at various locations around the outskirts of the city.”
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Read more from this author
This story was written by Gee Harland, she joined the team in 2022 as a senior multimedia reporter.
Gee covers Wallingford and Didcot.
Get in touch with her by emailing: Gee.harland@newsquest.co.uk
Follow her on Twitter @Geeharland
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