A plan to make Oxfordshire more "film-friendly" to movie-makers could generate an extra £1m for the county each year, it has been claimed.

Oliver O'Dellcorr, chief executive of Oxford's city centre management company OX1, and OFVM Film Oxfordcorr are planning to employ a dedicated film officer to attract more production companies into the county.

They said the county was under-used as a film location, despite some high-profile successes (see panel left).

And they claimed red tape was driving production companies to other towns rather than Oxford.

Geron Swann, centre manager for OFVM Film Oxford, which trains Oxford filmmakers, said: "Oxfordshire has a treasure of potential locations, which it is not exploiting. This could be a real goldmine over the years."

Mr Swann said his organisation had applied to both the city and county councils for funding to create a film desk for Oxfordshire, which would be based in East Oxford.

He said investment of £100,000 over three years would fund a film officer who could create a database of possible filming locations and liaise with local catering and security companies to create a hassle-free service for location managers.

Creating the post would also help Oxfordshire catch up with places including Brighton, London and Bath, cities which already have film desks.

Mr Swann said: "Films like The Golden Compass and Harry Potter have always come to Oxford because they can write a blank cheque.

"But we are looking to attract people other than mega-bucks companies, which would not currently consider Oxford because it is too much hassle to work through the bureaucracy."

Mr O'Dell has pledged about £20,000 to the project if a vote for a Business Improvement District (BID) in the centre of Oxford is successful.

If the BID is approved, businesses would pay OX1 a levy towards creating an improved city centre for visitors.

Mr O'Dell said: "A lot of production companies look for places that look like Oxfordshire, but don't film in Oxfordshire because we are so film-unfriendly.

"Places like Bath raise about £1m over the course of a year for their local economy through being film-friendly. We want to make ourselves more film-friendly. I think the figures for Oxfordshire would be similar to Bath."