Rising parking charges in Oxford city centre will hit the Christmas shopping trade, say furious business leaders, writes Andrew Ffrench.

The Oxfordshire Chamber of Commerce strongly criticised a decision by Oxford City Council to increase charges at the Union Street, St Clement's and Summertown car parks.

Reduced parking charges for Sunday shoppers in city centre car parks are also being scrapped in a bid to save 180,000 a year.

The increased charges could come into effect in the near future, if the decision is agreed by full council on Monday but it has not been decided yet by how much.

The move comes as councillors struggle to make 3.8m cuts to council services. About 2m worth of cuts have so far been found.

Now business leaders are warning that any increase to park-and-ride charges also on the cash-strapped council's list of fundraising proposals could have a devastating effect on the Christmas shopping trade.

Chamber chairman John Naish said: "I understand the desire to free the centre of Oxford of cars to improve the shopping environment, but crippling parking charges and expensive park and ride buses will just send shoppers to other towns. We will all be the losers if the result is a decline in Oxford as a retail centre."

Liberal Democrat councillor John Goddard said it was "regrettable" that charges were going up, but added that they might not come into effect before Christmas.