New rules will come into force in February which will rid residential roads of rogue car dealers and could see fast food vans on Oxford’s iconic streets.

The city is currently divided into prohibited streets, where pedlars and traders are automatically banned, and consent streets, where people are allowed to sell their wares with a licence.

All other streets in Oxford are undesignated, meaning the city council has no enforcement rights over them.

But following an Oxford City Council decision last month, new rules will come into force on February 1 to give officers power over whether people are allowed to sell.

It could open the way for kebab vendors, fast food sellers and pedlars to apply to set up stalls in some of Oxford’s most iconic streets.

Oxford Civic Society chairman Peter Thompson said: “It frees up the possibility of street trading in streets where it has been banned; and it also imposes more stringent requirements on licensing street trading generally. The first of those potentially opens up opportunities for street traders to take pitches in locations we would regard as unsuitable and undesirable.

“However, the second gives some reassurance that control over street traders could be better than it was before. It will hinge on the quality of the implementation.”

He added: “We will have to monitor the manner in which it is implemented by the city council’s officers rather more closely than we have done so in the past.”

Mr Thompson said that while street stands and food vans may be unsuitable for some areas of the city because of the heritage or traffic problems, it could also help revitalise the city centre.

Retail guru Mary Portas recommended that restrictions on street trading be lifted in her recent Government review on revitalising the nation’s high streets.

The new rules will also bring an end to on-street secondhand car sales which have angered residents around Cowley Road.

Traders parking cars along previously undesignated streets will now need a licence from the city council.

The councillor responsible for city development, Colin Cook, said: “It was initially the car trading on Cowley Road which was the trigger, but also people setting up fast-food vans that were beginning to become a problem.

“This is a way to try and regulate on roads where traders do not have permission.

“I don’t think it will make any difference to the numbers of legal street traders.

“However, it will deal with those few ne’er-do-wells who make a nuisance of themselves.

“It will sort out the car traders and one man bands who chance their arms.”

He added: “I don’t think there will be a massive wave of applications for kebab vans on Headley Way or anything like that. It is just not going to happen.”