Cyclists riding around Oxford’s streets without lights will be the focus of a month-long road safety campaign.

The crackdown will be launched on Monday with a three-hour check in High Street, Oxford, between 6.30pm and 9.30pm.

During the operation police officers and members of Oxfordshire County Council’s road safety team will be stopping any cyclist seen riding without lights and issuing them with a £30 non-endorsable fixed penalty fine.

Checks will continue throughout the winter months, but if a cyclist is issued with a fine before the end of November, he or she will be offered the chance to avoid paying it.

To do so, they must produce a receipt for a set of front and rear cycle lights along with their fixed penalty notice at Oxford or Cowley police stations within seven days of receiving the fine.

The receipt must prove the offender bought the lights after the offence was committed.

PC Mark Pilling, of the Abingdon Road Policing Unit, said: “This approach is intended to improve road safety for cyclists on roads throughout the city “At this time of the year there are many students arriving in the city. Understandably, some choose to buy a bike, but in order to save themselves a few pounds they fail to buy lights for it.

“But as the nights draw in, even in well-lit streets anyone cycling without lights at night is vulnerable and dangerous to pedestrians.”

Julie Jones, road safety officer for Oxfordshire County Council added: "Cycling is popular throughout the whole of the county, particularly in larger towns, but it is in Oxford city where over half of all of the 'un-lit' cyclist injuries occur.

"Together with the fact that two thirds of the reported casualties are aged between 20 and 24 suggests this is something of a localised problem.

"The difficulty for the county's road safety Team is that many of these young people have come from elsewhere in the country or are international students and we won't have had the chance to do any earlier intervention work with them"