AFTER six consultations costing £312,000 and spanning four years, East Oxford residents are still at loggerheads over parking permit plans.

The latest, and final consultation over introducing controlled parking zones (CPZ) has neighbours split down the middle again over the £50-a-year permits.

Overall, about half supported and half opposed the Divinity and Magdalen Road plans – the same result as the first questionnaire put to residents in 2008.

Oxfordshire County Council transport cabinet member Rodney Rose will decide on the three schemes on Thursday morning from 10am at County Hall. The public can attend the meeting.

Council transport officers have recommended to him that the CPZs should be approved.

Of the 159 Magdalen Road north zone residents, 116 backed it, 31 objected and 12 did not give a view. But most non-residents – 55 – opposed it, with just 16 in support.

Plans for Magdalen Road south were mostly opposed by neighbours living within it, 94 against and 19 for with seven giving no clear view.

For those living outside the zone, responses were 41 for and 34 against.

Support for the £50-a-year permits is higher in the north as commuter parking is worse there, a council report said.

But both zones must be approved, or none at all, to prevent problems being displaced from one to the other, it said.

North zone resident Anthony Cheke, of Hurst Street, said: “I am strongly in favour of this – the parking situation is completely out of control.”

But south zone hair salon owner Dennis Pratley said: “My customers won’t be able to park.

“They never have problems parking in this side of Oxford at all.”

In the Divinity Road area, 55 who live in it supported the plan while 44 opposed it and 19 did not give a clear view.

A similar split was found among non-resident responses, with 49 for and 43 against.

The zone was approved in 2009 but put on hold until the nearby Magdalen Road area zones were agreed. Officers support it going ahead alone.

Elizabeth Mills, chairman of the Divinity Road Area Residents’ Association, said: “It is the best thing that could happen for the area. Our quality of life has been so diminished.”

The £291,000 scheme will be funded by developer cash, mostly from Oxford University as part of a deal to build on its Old Road campus.