AN OXFORD college will keep its car park open to shoppers at weekends, undercutting prices at the nearby Westgate Centre.

Oxford and Cherwell Valley College opened its 101 spaces to the public in a trial run before Christmas, raising £2,000 for its Student Fund which pays for extra teaching equipment.

Now it is going to continue opening the car park between 8am and 5pm on Saturdays and Sundays, charging £5 for any length of stay.

A few yards away, Oxford City Council charges Westgate Centre car park users £6 for three hours, £7.60 for four hours and £14.40 for six hours.

Graham Jones, of traders’ group Rox, said: “I think competition with the Westgate car parking regime can only be seen as good.

“It is up to the college to market it so people know about it and are not in the habit of going straight past the entrance and into Westgate.

“If it means that serious shoppers who want to spend a few hours in Oxford and will otherwise have to pay £8 for parking save a few quid, it can only be good.

“A little bit of competition might get the city council to think again about its charges.”

But the city council warned it could have “troubling consequences”.

Deputy leader Ed Turner said: “It’s not likely to have a major impact financially because the car park is quite small.

“But the city and county councils devise pricing charges on the basis of a hierarchy, with park-and-ride significantly cheaper than pricing in the city centre, whether on-street or off-street.

“Ultimately, anything which changes that and may make people drive in to look for a space, and then back out to park and ride could have quite troubling consequences.

“Having said that, it is a free country.”

Until now, the college car park has been used by staff at weekends, and students came up with the idea of charging shoppers to use it.

It will be staffed by OCVC students from the college’s public services programme, giving them experience of working with the public. Some of them will use the experience to volunteer as stewards in the London Olympics later this year.

The college’s director of business development, Pete Reynolds, said: “This is something that has been suggested for a number of years, but the focus on enterprise and working with students to help them become more employable and give them the skills they really need to succeed and get good jobs has really helped this come to fruition.”

He added: “We had a great response to the pilots, raising more than £1,000 in revenue in the last full weekend before Christmas.

“We are excited about the opportunity to extend the scheme into 2012.”

Nathan Rose, 17, from Greater Leys, who is studying public services with the ambition of becoming a policeman, said: “I’ve already worked pretty much every shift there in December.

“It helps me gain a bit of confidence in talking to people I don’t really know and dealing with the public, which links with my course.”