PLANS that could see some Oxfordshire councils take control of parking enforcement remain in the 'very early stages'.

County and Cherwell District Council members and officers met to discuss potential plans to take parking enforcement powers from police before Christmas.

The changes would affect South Oxfordshire, Vale of White Horse and Cherwell districts if they come into force. It is likely the district councils would take on responsibility for traffic enforcement.

The county council is in charge of enforcement in Oxford City.

Paul Smith, county council spokesman, said: “We are the very early stages. There’s an officer cross party working group involving all districts other than the city council.

"The Government would not consider applications from individual districts and won’t consider any applications from anywhere in the entire country until late 2019.

"In the meantime we are therefore working on a feasibility study."

Mr Smith added: "We’ll review all the potential different models and there’ll be independent judgement on whether a scheme would break even financially.

"Once information has been gathered it would be for each individual district council to decide on what route forward they’d like.”