Shoppers travelling to Oxford by car will be greeted by a brighter and safer multi-storey car park under plans to spend £254,000 on it.

The refurbishment work will be carried out over the next two years to improve the structure of the Westgate car park and make it more attractive with a coat of paint and better lighting.

Oxford City Council also wants to clear out the vagrants who hang around the stairwells and have left needles lying around in the past.

Cllr Alex Hollingsworth, chairman of the highways and traffic committee, said yesterday that the work needed to be done and they were under a legal obligation to provide parking spaces there.

He said: "We can't not spend the money and hope it will go away. The council is more than happy to do it to provide a good service for people who use the car park."

But the Liberal Democrats said that staff were needed in the car park to make people, especially women, feel safer.

Cllr Jean Fooks told the city council meeting last night: "I think we would all agree that the Westgate car park is not one of the jewels in Oxford's crown. Visitors and shoppers are greeted by a badly-lit, unattractive and, frequently, dirty car park.

"The stairs are unspeakable at night and marginally less bad during the day, the lifts frightening, the travelator hasn't worked for ten years and there are very few staff in the day and none at all in the evening."

She also criticised the council for losing out on the opportunity for the shops to provide large sums to refurbish the car park.

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