THE COUNCIL has been criticised after the Westgate Car Park was shut with no warning on Saturday afternoon.

On Saturday afternoon, Oxfordshire County Council ordered the Westgate car park to close, despite not being completely full in an attempt to ease congestion within the city centre.

Helen Shields, from Cowley, was travelling in an electric car to the Westgate car park on Saturday with her sister and 86-year-old mother, who has mobility issues.

The family was heading into the city centre for a birthday day out for their elderly mother.

Upon arriving at the Westgate car park, employees told the woman that it was closed – even though she says it was not at full capacity.

Ms Shields explained: “My sister and I were travelling into the city centre with my 86-year-old mother to see a show at the New Theatre at 2 .30 pm for her birthday and arrived at 1 pm to find the car park shut.

“The car park was not full but had been ordered to shut by the council due to congestion.”

The Cowley local said that the car park had been ‘shut without warning’ and caused the family to almost miss ‘9 to 5’ – Dolly Parton’s musical that is currently showing in Oxford.

The county council said the car park closed on January 22 because it was 'approaching full capacity' and was leading to 'heavy queues' of traffic on Thames Street, Oxpens Road, and Botley Road.

It said that it closes the car park for 'temporary periods' when queueing causes congestion - the council said this strategy works as a 'temporary solution' and has been agreed with the car park's operators.

Yet the lack of notification about the closures has been criticised.

Ms Shields said: “There was no forewarning or anything – my mum cannot walk so we always use the Motability Scheme in the car park.

“Employees told us the car park had to be closed due to congestion, because of the queuing traffic and people were being told not to queue for the car park as it was causing congestion behind them

“They have clearly got a problem with their congestion policy.”

A spokesperson for the county council said: "Without such action the queues would simply build up even further, making the traffic situation even worse.

"The car park is reopened when occupancy falls sufficiently or delays on the surrounding network are reduced.

"Updates are available on the @OxonTravel Twitter feed.

"We would urge visitors to the city centre to use the bus or the park and ride sites where possible.

"There are plenty of parking spaces available at the numerous park and ride sites, eliminating the need to find one of the limited number of parking spaces which are available in the city centre."