MORE controlled parking in Oxford’s residential streets is set to be signed off – making it harder for commuters to park their cars in them.

A controlled parking zone (CPZ) will soon be introduced in Magdalen Road and Howard Street in East Oxford if it gets the go-ahead next week.

It would be the latest in a roll-out across the city in an effort to make it easier for residents to park outside their homes.

In both Magdalen Road and Howard Street there is little off-street parking available, the county council says.

Many of their homes are also houses of multiple occupations (HMOs) so demand is greater than in other areas.

Of the 209 people who responded to a consultation, 60 per cent said they had a car. Just 16 per cent said they had no car.

The need for parking was most pressing on weekday evenings, with 75 per cent of respondents telling the council they had ‘moderate or severe difficulty’ in trying to park there during that time.

READ MORE: New Oxford parking zones to be discussed today

In comparison, 46 per cent of people said they had struggled to park during daytimes on weekdays.

A plan for a CPZ in the same area had been mooted in 2012 but residents did not support it. Another in the nearby Magdalen North area was rolled out though.

In 2017, the council agreed that £250,000 would be spent on a project to roll out a CPZ in Iffley Fields.

New CPZs have been introduced in Iffley Fields, in October 2018, and in Wood Farm, in April.

Together they cost about £115,000.

The Magdalen Road and Howard Street scheme will cost about £204,000.

Of that, about £69,000 will be provided as part of a developer contribution from Wadham College, Oxford. It is building a large student accommodation block, the Dorothy Wadham building, in the area.

The council said seven objections were submitted on behalf of Helen and Douglas House, which cares for terminally ill children, children with life-limiting conditions and their families.

The charity said it was worried that its own limited parking would limit how families and its staff and volunteers could use it.

The council said: “The concerns of organisations are noted but it is not considered viable to amend the parking bays available to non-permit holders to allow longer waiting,

“This would appreciably undermine the effectiveness of the scheme and, in any case, such parking spaces would be attractive to other non-permit holders with no guarantee that it would be available to the intended users.”

READ AGAIN: MAP: New Controlled Parking Zones (CPZs) for East Oxford

Other CPZs that will be developed over coming months and years includes another in Cowley Marsh.

The county council’s cabinet member for environment, Yvonne Constance, will be asked to approve the plan at a meeting next Friday at County Hall, Oxford.