THOUSANDS of residents across Oxford look like escaping having to pay to park in their own street for a year.

Oxfordshire County Council's decision to start charging residents £40 a year for parking permits sparked protests.

And it threatened a costly legal battle with Oxford City Council, which opposed the scheme.

But it has emerged that County Hall's coffers are unlikely to be greatly swelled from payment for permits over the next 12 months.

With the city council carrying out its threat not to do the county council's 'dirty work' by collecting the charges from homeowners, County Hall has been faced with creating its own parking payments shop in its Speedwell Street offices.

The shop is unlikely to be finished until an as yet unspecified date in the summer, meaning a long wait before residents' permits generate substantial revenue.

County Hall confirmed that all residents who are due to renew their parking permits before mid-summer will escape charges for a year.

Residents whose permits are due for renewal in the late summer, however, will find themselves having to pay for parking permits, with the cost ranging from £40 for one vehicle to £120 for four.

Steve Smith, Oxfordshire County Council's network co-ordinator, said: "The city council officially informed us late last year that it no longer wished to run the parking payments shop."

The city council had been responsible for distributing free residents' parking permits on behalf of County Hall since parking zones were introduced nine years ago.