A RAIL company is set to pay for yellow lines throughout a village after its car park charges pushed commuters on to residential streets.

But residents in Radley near Abingdon are fighting the plans.

First Great Western spent £165,000 of Department for Transport cash extending the car park at Radley railway station earlier this year by 30 spaces, but also started charging £3 a day.

But villagers then complained to FGW that the charge pushed up to 20 commuters every day on the area’s narrow roads.

Now, they say, fewer people are using the car park than before it was expanded.

Lower Radley resident Graham Steinsberg said: “It is an accident waiting to happen. Sharp braking is already the order of the day in the village, which is a nuisance, but in icy conditions it will be only a matter of time until this nuisance turns into a serious accident.”

Now Oxfordshire County Council has pledged to create parking restrictions in the village, but villagers say they don’t want parking restrictions on residential roads.

They want FGW to stop charging for use of its car park.

Mr Steinsberg, 57, a chartered accountant, said: “We don’t want yellow lines appearing anywhere.

“If they were making tons of money out of the car park which allowed them to lower fares, it would be okay.”

But he said fewer people were now parking at the station than before charges were introduced: “The economic argument doesn’t stack up.”

County councillor for Radley Bob Johnston said: “There have been numerous meetings, and I have pushed as hard as I can but now it is down to FGW and officers at the county to decide what is to be done.”

Oxfordshire County Council spokesman Martin Crabtree said: “We will be looking at how parking restrictions could be effective in solving local parking issues and would expect to consult on proposals early in the new year.

“Depending on the outcome a scheme could be implemented in the spring.

“We would expect the cost of any scheme to be funded by the rail company.”

He said the solution would not involve parking permits.

First Great Western spokesman James Davis said the Department for Transport funding was for “commercial projects only”, so the company was obliged to charge for use of the car park.

Mr Steinsberg has now started a pressure group, Stop Clogging Radley with Parking (SCRAP), calling on FGW to scrap its car park charges.