ROBO wardens could patrol Oxford car parks next year to make sure you pay and display as the cost of a ticket rises.

Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) is to be used to catch motorists who try to park for free.

Camera cars, usually used by police to catch wanted criminals, could patrol city car parks in a fraction of the time it takes a warden.

The news comes as the city council also revealed plans to raise charges at several of its sites – although Saturday tickets at the Westgate will be reduced to boost trade.

The plan is part of the city’s bid to save £10m over four years as it prepares for cuts in Government funding.

The council has 12 off-street car parks, and one coach park, patrolled by five enforcement officers. Last year, 9,339 penalty notices were dished out, netting £561,202.

Using ANPR technology, the council predicts it could save £50,000 in enforcement costs and protect its income, which is £3.12m so far this year, but set to be £700,000 down on budget estimates.

City council leader Bob Price said: “We are hoping people would rather pay more to park than lose services elsewhere. The alternatives are more unpalatable.”

Mr Price said using ANPR was a standard enforcement measure but admitted people always “got excited” about parking issues.

The camera cars would patrol car parks scanning number plates and checking them against data entered into pay and display machines. If a car without a registered ticket is detected an alarm would allowing a warden to inspect the vehicle and issue a ticket if required.

Parking manager Andrew Bradfield-Barnes said the idea was at an early stage.

He said: “ANPR has been around some time but not used much by parking en-forcement. We could enforce car parks much quicker.”

Mr Bradfield-Barnes said the 220-space Worcester Street car park, where charges are set to rise from £5 to £6.50 for two hours on a Saturday, takes more than an hour to enforce on foot, but with ANPR would take just 15 minutes.

He said the overall aim was not to issue more tickets but to ensure all drivers paid.

He added: “It’s nothing worse than having two men walk round looking at your windscreen.

“If you buy a ticket you have nothing to worry about.”

The technology has been used to police parking by Plymouth City Council and is used in London to enforce the congestion charge.

Graham Jones, of business group Rox, welcomed the reduced charges at Westgate but said: “To improve their coffers they should do that for the whole week.”