OXFORDSHIRE County Council has confirmed it is not one of six local authorities that have lobbied the Government for permission to bring in higher parking fines.

But the council’s cabinet member for transport, Rodney Rose, has not ruled out using higher fines if the current cap was lifted.

Mr Rose told the Oxford Mail the council had not made representations to the Department for Transport. But asked if he would use higher fines if allowed, he said: “We would need to look at the evidence.

“If fines don’t deter people and they get better value from ignoring them and parking anyway, it something we need to look into.”

Fines outside London are capped at £70 for parking on double yellow lines, as charged by the county council.

Department of Transport spokesman Anna McCreadie confirmed six councils had asked for the regional parking fine cap to be revised in line with the London rate of £120.

The department has not named the authorities.

She added that any change would require public consultation.

Transport Minister Norman Baker said: “Councils should remember that penalty charges exist to control parking, not as some sort of easy way of raising revenue from motorists.”

Earlier this month, a unit of Territorial Army medics recently returned from duty in Afghanistan got parking tickets on their minibuses as they were attending Oxford’s Remembrance Sunday parade. The county council, which issued 48,589 parking tickets last year, agreed to cancel the troops' tickets after the story ran in the Oxford Mail.