A poor one-star rating has been given to car parking services in the Vale of White Horse by Government inspectors.

In a draft best value inspection report on the Vale of White Horse District Council's car parks and engineering services, the authority is described as providing a "fair, one star service that will not improve".

Despite praising the car parks for being clean and vandalism-free, the report criticises the authority for not consulting drivers about their needs and failing to monitor parking attendants by setting them targets.

The report also criticises the council for not offering people the option of paying parking fines by credit card.

It claims visitors to Abingdon are often fined for buying parking tickets from the wrong machine because of confusion over whether the town or district council runs on-street parking.

Engineering projects were described as "budget rather than needs-led". Among the cases highlighted was the Old Abbey House building, used by the Abingdon Citizens Advice Bureau, which has no disabled access, despite the district council spending £163,000 on modernisation.

Council chief executive Terry Stock said disabled access had not been overlooked, but making alterations to the building, which is in a conservation area, had proved difficult.

Commenting on the report, he said: "We offer good facilities at a reasonable charge, operated by people who are thoroughly professional."

Council leader Paul Bizzell said: "We're struggling to understand how they have drawn such conclusions from the positive feedback they had."

He said the council was keen to meet the inspectors to identify areas for improvement.