TWO of Oxfordshire district councils have agreed to explore ways in which parking enforcement could be taken off the police.

Liberal Democrats in South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils proposed measures were looked at in meetings last week and were broadly accepted by colleagues.

Changes to the ways parking is dealt with could see the councils responsible for issuing parking tickets.

In Oxford, the county council is already responsible for enforcing parking matters.

Lib Dems said the policy changes would mean parking enforcement would be more responsive and would free up police officers’ time to get on with other matters.

Emily Smith, the leader of Vale of White Horse Lib Dems, said: “Oxford City’s parking enforcement is very good, but this has a negative impact on areas like Kidlington and Botley.

“Parking restrictions and having to pay to park at park and rides has displaced parking onto residential streets. It is time to properly consider civil parking enforcement.”

In the Vale, potential changes to parking enforcement were debated four years ago but the Conservative administration voted against taking it any further.

Vale voted in favour of an amended Lib Dem motion last Wednesday, while South Oxfordshire councillors gave it a thumbs up on Thursday.

Vale council will now ask for the county council to delegate civil parking enforcement to it – and to explore implementing a scheme across the district.

Cherwell council’s Lib Dem councillor Alaric Rose is understood to be preparing a bid to take a similar motion to his authority.

The county council has been in charge of on-street parking enforcement within Oxford since February 1997 when George Young, the then transport secretary, granted special orders allowing the decriminalisation of on-street parking.

Thames Valley Police is responsible for the enforcement of all on-street restrictions across the rest of Oxfordshire – except in small pockets where localised arrangements are in place.

In Henley and Abingdon, their town councils are responsible for enforcing small parking schemes.

In South Oxfordshire, there is already an agency agreement with South Oxfordshire District Council over management of on-street parking areas in Wallingford. SODC is responsible for those.