ENFORCING parking across some Oxfordshire districts could be taken out of the police’s hands and given to councils to control next year.

It follows moves across Oxfordshire to take the powers from Thames Valley Police, with statistics showing the force’s performance is mixed at best.

More than 3,000 tickets were handed out to drivers in Banbury from 2017 until October 2018, a freedom of information request showed.

But just a handful of tickets were handed in other Oxfordshire towns.

According to Cherwell District Council papers, a draft strategy for Oxfordshire could be agreed by councillors in March.

If that is agreed, then senior councillors on the authorities’ executives will be asked to approve that and then send it out for consultation.

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Cherwell District Council papers state: “Yvonne Constance (Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet member for environment, and responsible for roads) and (council service manager – highways) Rikke Hanson attended a meeting on December 5, 2018 and discussed the possibilities of decriminalisation of parking in the Cherwell district.”

It continues: “It is anticipated that the draft strategy will be submitted to the (Cherwell District Council overview and scrutiny) committee’s March meeting and, subject to agreement, to executives in June to agree it goes out for consultation.”

It is understood the Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire District Councils will also be involved in the review but that the Government has said no change will be allowed before the end of the year, at the earliest.

The Vale’s involvement followed a motion by its Liberal Democrat leader Emily Smith, who asked the authority to investigate whether parking in the district could be decriminalised. Councillors backed her call.

She said last year: “Enforcement is so patchy – it’s all over the place.

“In Botley and Sunningwell, it’s shocking: we have got a real problem around our two primary schools.”

She added: “I have asked the police and it is always the same response: they have don’t have the resources.”

Parking is already decriminalised in Oxford and West Oxfordshire.

The county council is responsible in the city, while West Oxfordshire District Council is responsible for that district’s enforcement.

The county council made about £1.2m in parking fines over 2017/18, with 39,266 tickets handed out during that year. The number of parking tickets in Oxford handed out by the county council has remained relatively stable over the last decade.

West Oxfordshire District Council said it made a lost last year. Costs for on-street parking enforcement cost it £99,000.