Happy New Year...unless you are a shopper arriving by car in Oxford.

One wonders what goes through the heads of our elected representatives given that the economy is on the slide, people are feeling the pinch, and traders need to keep people spending.

Raising the already-steep car parking charges in and around the city centre is certainly not going to help matters.

Today we reveal the eye-watering amount it will cost to park your car in city council-run car parks.

A two-hour stay in Gloucester Green on a Saturday will jump to £6.50 from £4.70 — an increase of 38 per cent.

A one hour stay in the same car park will rise to £3.80 — an increase of 27 per cent.

They might as well put a sign up saying ‘shop elsewhere — it’s cheaper in another town’.

Given the dire financial situation at the Town Hall, council top brass see motorists as a golden egg.

But it will only be a matter of time before shoppers say enough-is-enough, vote with their feet and visit more accessible, welcoming (and cheaper) destinations like Milton Keynes, Reading or Swindon.

Oxford City Council is generally a high cost, poor value for money authority.

The council tax precept is one of the highest in the country — and it is set to jump again in April.

And shoppers arriving by car will not just face hikes in charges at the familiar city centre car parks. Summertown and Headington will be affected too. This will, no doubt, be disastrous news to hard-pressed traders in those areas.

If there was any doubt as to whether politicians lived on the same planet as the rest of us then consider this comment from city council leader Bob Price about the parking charge increases.

He said: “It is a big increase, but in relation to the cost of living generally, it doesn’t seem to me entirely unreasonable.”