Some parking charges in Oxford will rise but there will be no increase in concessionary bus fares.

Those were two of the decisions taken by city councillors when they agreed to a £2m cuts package.

More than 150 protesters held a demonstration outside Oxford Town Hall yesterday to condemn proposals to make a total of £3.8m worth of cuts.

City councillors have run out of savings and have drawn up a list of possible cuts from the budget for the year 2001-2002. Staff time to implement the cuts is expected to cost at least £500,000.

At a meeting of the council's strategy and resources committee, councillors agreed cuts totalling about 2m - and will now seek to find a further 1.8m reduction in services.

Yesterday's decisions included scrapping reduced car parking charges on Sundays in the central area car parks. The concession - worth £180,000 a year - was introduced two years ago after churchgoers complained they were being penalised.

Parking charges are also set to rise at the Union Street, St Clement's and Summertown car parks, but it has not been decided yet by how much.

About £500,000 is also being slashed from the budget to tackle homelessness. It is hoped some savings can be achieved by finding alternatives to expensive bed-and-breakfast accommodation.

And £200,000 worth of cuts are being made to environmental health services, which could include job losses. It was agreed to continue funding the Citizen's Advice Bureau, which feared its grant was under threat.

Cllr Corinna Redman, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said about £2m worth of cuts had now been agreed - but a further round of more controversial cuts would also have to be made.

She denied the claim of Labour Cllr Alex Hollingsworth that there had been a U-turn on concessionary fares for pensioners and £50,000 worth of grant funding each for Oxford Citizen's Advice Bureau (CAB) and the Housing Rights organisation.

She added: "This is the first round of cuts that have been agreed, and the decision is likely to be ratified at full council. Then a second round of options will have to be discussed."

John Tanner, the former Labour leader, and spokesman for Scrap, the group opposed to the cuts, said it now looked likely that about £800,000 worth of cuts which had been suggested would not go ahead. This included plans to increase charges in the city's park and ride car parks.

Mr Tanner said: "I am delighted that the council has caved in to pressure from Scrap, and I am particularly pleased that grants to organisation like the CAB are safe."

Robin Birch, chairman of Oxford CAB, said: "I am very pleased with the decision but, I am still wary about what might happen in the future."

Bill Jupp, Scrap spokesman for pensioners, added: "I am very pleased that the council have listened to the people and are not going to interfere with the 20p fare for pensioners."