No one should be surprised at the ten per cent fall in drivers using the Westgate multi-storey car park in Oxford. We are in the middle of the worst recession since the early 1980s at least, and car park charges went up by about 15 per cent at the beginning of the year.

To blame the drop on the increase in car parking charges alone is simplistic. At the same time, charges at some of the city’s park-and-ride car parks were dropped. Retail sales are down across the nation so some fall in use of the Westgate was inevitable whatever happened to the charges.

That said, there can be no doubt that the charging policy at the Westgate is not helpful to the vibrancy of Oxford city centre.

We understand the arguments about the use of car park pricing to encourage more people to seek alternative ways of coming into the centre of Oxford.

While this has often been cited as a reason for the high parking charges, the reality is that increases in car parking charges over recent years have been brought in to fill a black hole at Oxford City Council. Indeed, city council spokesmen have made little pretence about this.

We can sympathise to some extent with the council’s financial plight, but its reliance on funds from its car parks is an unhealthy state of affairs.

An authority like Oxford City Council should view its car parking charges as a tool by which it can achieve policy objectives. These ought to include both traffic management and the promotion of Oxford as a shopping centre.

Simply charging the same high rate to every motorist that comes into Oxford, at whatever time of the day or on whatever day of the week, achieves neither of those objectives. It will undoubtedly drive some people away.

The city council should structure its charges so that there are incentives for drivers to come in when the roads are quieter and to deter drivers at rush hour. There should be incentives for shoppers to come in at weekends, particularly at quieter times of the year.

The city council cannot be unaware that while the redevelopment of the Westgate is on hold, a major new shopping development is due to open in Witney in the autumn and there is talk of work starting on a shopping development in Bicester.

Competition is about to hot up in an already difficult market.