A PUBLIC meeting about plans to introduce residents’ parking permits in East Oxford will be held on Thursday.

The meeting, organised by Oxford City Council’s Labour and Green Parties, will take place at the Evangelical Free Church in Magdalen Road from 7.30pm.

Oxfordshire County Council has proposed bringing controlled parking zones into parts of Magdalen Road and Divinity Road.

It is currently consulting on the plan.

City councillor John Tanner said: “We are hoping it will be an information meeting.

“We want to get across to people that the consultation, which ends next week on Friday, is a choice between what the county council is proposing, with all its flaws, and doing nothing.

“We also want to get across that everyone should take part in the consultation to tell the county council what they think.”

The aim of the CPZs is to protect parking spaces for residents living in the roads and cut parking congestion.

The total cost of the project is expected to be about £290,000. But the scheme has involved years of talks and the County Hall has already spent more than £312,000 on six previous public consultations.

A CPZ in Magdalen Road was approved by the council in 2009, but it was deemed the controversial decision needed further consultation. Permits in Divinity Road have proved less controversial but the county council will not introduce them until a decision has been reached on Magdalen Road.