BATTLE lines are being drawn over the width of parking spaces at Didcot railway station.

On one side are drivers of 4x4s and other vehicles who claim they are too narrow at the Foxhall Road car park.

On the other are the parking wardens of Apcoa who have been issuing tickets for parking outside the marked lines.

Some commuters who have been handed £80 fines claim spaces measure just 1.9 metres across, less than the British Parking Association (BPA) minimum recommended width of 2.4 metres.

The land is owned by Network Rail and managed by station operator First Great Western, which in turns sub-contracts out to Middlesex-based Apcoa.

The row has led to the BPA saying it would investigate.

Penny Reid, 70, who runs an organic farm near Wantage, said she was fined in September when she parked her Land Rover Freelander at the station.

She said: “I was travelling to London to see my daughter and my grandchildren and when I came back I found I had been given a ticket.

“The offside wheels of my Freelander were on the white line, but the spaces need to be bigger.

“If a car is parked in the space next to you there is not enough room to open the driver’s door.

“After getting the parking notice, I received letters from a debt collector but I contested paying the money and earlier this week Apcoa said I would not have to pay, as a gesture of goodwilll.

“I have decided to speak out because I’m sure lots of drivers have been affected.

“Some bays are clearly too narrow.”

Edward Hanharan, 40, from East Hendred, who commutes to London for his job as director of an environmental finance firm, also got a parking notice after parking his Audi A4 in the car park.

He said: “Two of my tyres were on the white line but the spaces are very tight.

“I pay £6 for my parking ticket and then I pay for my train ticket into London, so this is not customer-friendly at all. I think FGW should review the contract they have with Apcoa.”

Mr Hanrahan plans to contest the parking notice.

FGW spokesman John Ratchford said: “We haven’t received any complaints about this issue but we will be investigating and assessing the car park size.”

He said there were 966 spaces in the car park in Foxhall Road and the width of spaces was at least 2.2 metres, apart from one which was going to be removed.

However a space measured by the Oxford Mail was 2.09m.

Spaces at Becket Street car park in Oxford are between 2.2m wide and 2.4m wide.

Mr Ratchford added: “The Apcoa contract was renewed relatively recently.”

BPA spokesman Kelvin Reynolds said the association’s minimum size for a parking space, 4.8m (15.7ft) x 2.4m (7.8ft), had “survived the test of time”.

affrench@oxfordmail.co.uk