Drivers are flouting parking restrictions in Oxford's Cowley Road, because a blunder by council contractors means they cannot be enforced.

Adrian Greenwood says he often cannot park outside Cowley Road Post Office to send books to customers, because the loading bay is blocked by parked cars

Shopkeepers say the 17 new loading bays installed as part of Oxfordshire County Council's £1.6m road improvement scheme -- completed last November -- are useless, because motorists use them as parking spaces, making it impossible for people making deliveries to stop.

Barnardos charity shop manager Wendy Bennett said they had lost out on donations as people were unable to park in the bay outside.

She said: "People have come in and said they have a car full of stuff, but have had to take it elsewhere because they couldn't drop it off.

"It's good for us to have a loading bay there, but if you can't use them for loading and unloading, what's the point?"

Adrian Greenwood, who runs an Internet business selling antiquarian books from his home in Iffley Road, said he was often unable to park outside Cowley Road Post Office to send books to his customers, because the loading bay was blocked by parked cars.

He said: "The loading bays are full of cars, so you can't load or unload. Usually, I have to drive round the block and wait until someone drives off.

"There's no point in having loading bays there if you can't use them." Blockbuster video store assistant manager Chris Soper said that sometimes he had seen cars parked in bays outside the shop for several hours. He added: "They're a bit pointless really."

County council spokesman Paul Smith said contractor Isis Accord had not correctly completed markings at the loading bays between The Plain and Magdalen Road, meaning that Control Plus, the private company that carries out parking enforcement for the council, is not permitted to hand out tickets to anyone parked in them.

He said: "Our contractor has put incorrect parking regulation markings down in Cowley Road. We're annoyed about this and want the situation rectified as soon as possible.

"This will be done at no expense to the taxpayer. It's obviously desirable that we should be able to enforce parking regulations, hence the urgency of getting this job done." Mr Smith added that the problems only applied to the loading bays. Double yellow line restrictions along the rest of the road are being enforced.

Green city councillor Craig Simmons, the chairman of the east area committee, said that Isis Accord had failed to complete several aspects of the scheme to improve safety in Cowley Road properly. He added: "It's unacceptable and we're chasing them up about it."

Bungle Two

Another mix-up has meant a relatively small scheme to resurface a section of Little Clarendon Street, in Oxford, has been delayed.

Work started on the project last year, but it has since transpired that contractors carrying out the work on behalf of Oxford City Council were sent the wrong type of concrete mix by a supplier.

A council spokesman said: "A section of the carriageway in Little Clarendon Street is being relaid.

"This is because the incorrect material was sent to the contractor by the supplier.

"There's no extra cost to the taxpayer, Oxford City Council or the contractor." The blunder has shades of the Cornmarket Street repaving fiasco.

Almost exactly a year ago the independent panel set up to investigate how the city and county councils ended up blowing nearly £5m to relay the street reported its findings -- and found no one was to blame.

The original estimate for repaving Cornmarket Street with granite setts was £2.25m -- with the city council paying £1.85m and the county council just £400,000 -- but costs eventually soared to nearly £5m, after a catalogue of mistakes.

At one stage, the two councils could not even agree on what colour of top surface should be used, with tests carried out in part of Queen Street before they finally settled on the buff-coloured material that was eventually chosen.