MORE money to prevent people from becoming homeless will be spent by the city council next year – but unpopular car parking charges will go ahead.

Oxford City Council met last night to agree its budget for the coming year. 

Councillor Ed Turner, the council’s board member for finance, said it will spend £5m over 2018/19 to buy homes which will be used by families who had been at risk of homelessness. 

It will also spend an extra £187,000 next year, on top of the £200,000 increase planned for 2019/20, to combat homelessness and eliminate rough sleeping. 

Dr Turner pledged to push ahead with the controversial expansion of the council’s Seacourt Park and Ride, while freezing parking charges at it and the city council's others around Oxford.

Charges for the city council’s Headington and St Leonard’s car parks will increase to £2 for up to an hour in April, despite Lib Dem councillors staging a last ditch attempt to get them stopped.

Parking charges in other city centre car parks were also approved.

Dr Turner said: “We have also decided to increase city centre and suburban car park charges. Of course we understand representations saying we should not do this, but essentially we are in a position where either we need to raise these charges, or we need to hike up other fees and charges, notably those of the Park and Ride car parks, or we need to cut other services.” 

The council also said it would spend £5,000 on promoting the Oxford Living Wage across the city. That guarantees a minimum wage of £9.26 an hour for all city council staff and contractors, with that set to increase to £9.69 in April. 

The Lib Dems and Greens both put forward other amendments – but neither party got sufficient support.