DRIVERS using Thornhill park-and-ride said the return of parking fees at three of Oxford’s sites has caused chaos at the already overcrowded car park.

The city council re-introduced charges at its Pear Tree, Redbridge and Seacourt park-and-rides on Monday, while the county council’s Thornhill and Water Eaton centres still offer free parking.

Since then motorists have reported queues, drivers turning away and cars parked on verges at Thornhill.

On Thursday morning the Oxford Mail witnessed about 12 motorists giving up the search for a space and abandoning their cars on verges, despite signs, cones and parking attendants warning them not to.

And with work to add extra spaces to the Thornhill car park not starting until next year at the earliest, there’s no respite in sight.

Commuter Laura Shorter, 26, from Kidlington, said she found a scene of “absolute chaos” when she arrived at Thornhill at 8am on Tuesday, with queues of cars trying to find spaces and attendants telling drivers to use another site.

Ms Shorter, who works in retail merchandising in London, said: “It was absolute chaos. I’ve been commuting on weekdays for five years and never had any problems like this before this week.

“I joined the queue, which stretched back to the traffic lights, and eventually got into the park-and-ride.

“I parked on a verge, which I’ve seen people do when it’s busy. Then a man came over to me and said I couldn’t park there and should go to another park-and-ride.”

A county council spokesman said: “Council officers have always advised motorists they should park in clearly marked spaces or, if a site is full, find a designated spot elsewhere.”

Councillor Rodney Rose added: “It was always going to be the case that people equidistant from two from park-and-ride car parks might choose the one where no parking fee applies.”

Plans to expand the park-and-ride from its current 850 spaces by another 506 have been in the pipeline for several years.

In July funding for the £4m scheme was announced as part of a package of transport cash from the Government, but no timetable was given for work to begin.

Yesterday the county council said work was expected to begin early in the next financial year.

Churchill division county councillor Liz Brighouse said: “The car park simply doesn’t have the capacity to meet demand and is a victim of its own success.

“It will only get worse as more people will want to park there, because they don’t have to pay.

“There’s just no capacity to handle it at Thornhill. The whole thing is madness.”

The change followed the end of an agreement under which the county managed the city’s sites and offered free parking.