County council officers are celebrating after BBC bosses axed Top Gear - the motoring programme that ridiculed the Oxford Transport Strategy.

When the OTS feature was screened last year, it suggested that the strategy had transformed Oxford into "a city completely off its head".

County officers persuaded BBC chiefs that the programme had been unfair, and presenter Quentin Willson was ordered back to film a more balanced piece.

David Young, the council's environmental services director who defended the OTS on the programmes, said: "I will not shed a tear for the demise of Top Gear."

But he said his main criticism was the way it encouraged irresponsible driving, rather than its savaging of the OTS.

He added: "We had our disagreements over the OTS, but that is not the main reason I am glad to see the back of it.

"I felt it was a programme that did not advocate sensible driving at all times. It showed people racing around and may have given wrong ideas to irresponsible speed freaks.

"I hope that whatever replaces Top Gear will be much more conscious of the importance of road safety."

In 1999, the Commons Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs select committee suggested that programmes including Top Gear were "irresponsible" and could encourage fast driving.

The BBC2 programme, which once featured Chipping Norton-based journalist Jeremy Clarkson as a presenter, was taken off screens earlier this month after 23 years.

BBC bosses said it was time the programme was "hauled in for a service". It attracted 3.23 million viewers and could return in an updated format.