CONTROVERSIAL park and ride charges will be introduced a week late because the new ticket machines were not ready yesterday.

Fees for anyone parking at the council-run Thornhill and Water Eaton sites for longer than 11 hours are now set to start from next Monday.

This led to confusion yesterday morning as commuters tried to pay the new charges, but were told by staff there was no way for them to do so.

Blaming the floods for the delay in the machines being ready, Oxfordshire County Council deputy leader Rodney Rose admitted the authority should have been faster in making people aware of the week long delay.

Mr Rose said: “Basically they hadn’t got the machines fully up and running and we didn’t want to go off half-baked.

“With all our staff trying to keep on top of the flooding we decided to put it back a week.

“We don’t expect many complaints about starting a week later, but there have been a few people who wanted to be sure they weren’t going to get fined.

“We may have been a little slow to get the signs up letting people know it has been put back, but hopefully that has been corrected now.”

But even yesterday afternoon, the county council’s own website still said parking charges were to begin yesterday.

Many travellers catching coaches into London, including Edmund Harriss, 45, of Cumnor Rise Road, Botley, said they were unaware of the £3 fee.

“A lot of people park here to get the coach into London because the other modes of transport are incredibly expensive,” he said.

“This is going to add to the cost and it is going to inconvenient me and a lot of other commuters.”

Renny Kinyanjui, 35, of Aldbarton Drive, Barton, said it could end up costing him £750 a year.

He added: “It’s ludicrous.

“I work 50 weeks a year and I just can’t afford to spend that much on parking.

“We pay the bills in Oxford so I don’t see why we should be penalised.”

Sheridan Pratt, 37, from Garford, said: “Why can’t there be some sort of scheme for regular users?

“It is far too expensive for us at the moment.”

The Thornhill park and ride is popular with commuters, who use it to get the Oxford Tube and X90 bus services to London. From next week anyone staying for two or three days will pay £3 per day, with a 72-hour maximum stay and £100 fines for anyone staying longer.

The new scheme has cost the council about £200,000 for machines and other changes, but it is expecting to generate £150,000 a year.

Drivers already pay for parking at the city council-controlled Peartree, Seacourt and Redbridge park and ride sites after daily charges of £1.50 and a weekly fee of £7.50 were introduced in October 2011.