THOUSANDS more households in Oxford could be forced to pay for parking in their own street if a levy on office car parks is introduced.

The controversial restrictions would be needed to stop commuters from parking in residential streets instead of their workplace if the change is brought in, senior members of Oxford City Council said.

They raised concerns about the workplace parking levy being considered by Oxfordshire County Council, the highways authority, and said there was not enough evidence to suggest ‘what the benefits will be’.

Planning boss Alex Hollingsworth said: “We do not know what it is going to be used for. There are not enough workplace parking spaces in Oxford, so it is not going to guarantee a massive amount of income.

“There’s certainly no way on earth it will pay for something like a tram system, so then you have to ask whether there are better ways of achieving its aims.

“It could instead end up making a huge amount out of the resident parking schemes that would be required – and that would be difficult to justify.”

Christine Simm, the executive board member for culture and communities, said: “There are parts of the city on major bus routes that already have huge parking problems. It is partly people parking and getting on buses and partly people who work in areas like Headington and Cowley but just don’t want to pay to park.

“You have residents coming home who are not able to park. It’s very frustrating.

“But the trouble with controlled parking zones is they are hugely controversial. For every person who wants one, there’s another who doesn’t want to pay. It’s a really tricky issue, so we need to see more clearly what the benefits of the workplace parking levy would be.”

But Chris Terry, of Stratford Street, said a parking zone set to be introduced where he lived was welcome.

He said: “It’s fantastic news. People were sceptical about it at first, but the commuter parking problem has got worse and in a recent survey 70 per cent of our respondents said they now backed it.”

In November report, the county council said a workplace parking levy – an annual fee that would charge employers per parking space they own – could raise millions for transport schemes.

A similar levy in Nottingham paid for an extension of the city’s tram network. But the county council admitted that in Oxford it could lead to ‘employees attempting to park in residential areas to avoid paying’.

It added: “Controlled parking zones surround many of the main employment sites already, but would need to be expanded to ensure [neighbourhoods] are protected.”