A £9.5M scheme has been announced for a multi-storey car park to provide more spaces for commuters at Didcot Parkway rail station.

In September last year, a £8m revamp of the forecourt at Didcot Parkway was completed.

Now Oxfordshire County Council, with the support of South Oxfordshire District Council and Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership, is preparing to invest millions in hundreds more spaces for commuters.

But Penny Dakin Kiley, who works in web publishing and lives in Lydalls Road near the station, said some commuters would still park in residential streets instead of paying to park.

She added: “It’s time a residents’ parking scheme was introduced for streets near the station.

“With new homes being built at Great Western Park, more commuter spaces are needed.

“But some drivers park their cars outside your home and then go on holiday for two weeks – it’s very frustrating.”

Rail passengers are now being consulted on the plans for the multi-storey, which will be built in the 966-space Foxhall Road car park.

The scheme is being brought forward because car parking spaces could be lost from 2016 if SODC and the Homes and Communities Agency develop the area across the road from the station in the Didcot Gateway initiative, which includes a hotel.

The consultation poster said: “First Great Western has been working closely with the Department for Transport on further funding that will secure the provision of a new multi-storey car park to be built on the current Foxhall Road car park site.

“This will replace the spaces lost and add room for around 800 more.”

Labour town councillor Mar-garet Davies welcomed the multi- storey scheme and said she sympathised with residents demanding a residents’ parking scheme for Lydalls Road and the surrounding streets.

She added: “Parking permits need to be considered but at the moment no-one wants to enforce them.

“I welcome the car park – it reflects the fact that Didcot is a development hotspot and a transport hub.”

The multi-storey will have automatic number plate recognition and CCTV.

First Great Western said further details of the scheme would be put on its website when they became available.