A VINTAGE motorcycle club which has met in Oxford every Boxing Day for the last 45 years says the tradition will be scrapped this year – because they have been forced out by parking restrictions.

The Oxford section of the Vintage Motor Cycle Club (VMCC) has held a traditional Boxing Day ‘meet’ in Oxford since its inception in 1965.

Hundreds of motorcycle owners, new and vintage, meet at around 10am and show off their vehicles to locals and tourists, before riding out into the countryside and enjoying a pub lunch.

But this year club members will forgo the meet and head straight for the pub – a decision they say has left them ‘deeply saddened’.

Chairman Dave Webster, 60, from Cowley, said: “This isn’t a decision we have made lightly – we enjoy the meet-up and we feel it is a little part of Oxford history – but in recent years we feel we have basically been edged out of Broad Street because there is no longer room for us.”

Up until five years ago, the club met in St Giles, and said they enjoyed free bank holiday parking.

But when parking charges were introduced they moved into Broad Street.

Mr Webster explained: “In Broad Street we occupied the parking spaces in the middle of the street and this seemed fine. We are there for just a couple of hours, after all.

“But then we were told we should use the small loading space further up the road.

“But unfortunately it is so small that we can only fit about 20 bikes on it.

“This has made it more and more difficult for people to just turn up like they used to and the final straw came last year when a minibus load of about 10 parking inspectors turned up and circled us.

“This year we will be meeting at the White Hart in Fyfield instead. They are friendly, with a nice big car park. But it’s a shame people won’t see us in the city.

“It seems it is a sad sign of the times.”

Barry Whitehead, treasurer of the group and part of the Boxing Day meet for 10 years, said: “I regard us as being just the latest victim of the march of health and safety and commercialism.

“People love to come and see the bikes – it’s part of the city’s Christmas tradition. But I guess we don’t make money, so we are not important!”

A statement from Oxfordshire County Council, which controls the parking in Broad Street, said: “We have not been contacted by the organisers of Vintage Motor Cycle Club regarding arrangements for an event this year, but we would be happy to discuss their requirements.

“In recent years, including last year, we have suspended the loading bay on the south side of Broad Street outside the shops for the Boxing Day Rally, which has worked well.

“At no time in previous years have we received a request regarding the central parking bays.”