OXFORDSHIRE County Council was yesterday under pressure to give motorists a refund after it made a profit on its Oxford parking permit scheme.

Oxford City Council and the Oxford Mail joined together to demand a rebate for motorists after we revealed last month the authority – which has previously said the scheme was not intended to make a profit – banked £110,442.76 in the 2010-11 financial year.

The county council denied it made a profit as it said figures should also include enforcing double-yellow lines in the same street and that overall this made it a £178,219 loss.

But on Monday, Oxford City Council passed a motion demanding County Hall pays back the permit profit it made from 8,276 city residents.

The council motion – passed unanimously – said the surplus came “despite repeated assurances from representatives of the county council that residents were only being asked to ensure that residents’ parking zone administration costs were recovered”.

It added: “Council condemns this duplicity and asks the chief executive to write to the county council to demand that a rebate is paid to residents who have been forced to pay excessively high charges for the privilege of parking near their own homes.”

Liberal Democrat Alan Armitage, who put forward the motion, last night urged motorists who bought a permit between April last year and March to fill in and post a letter, published in today's Oxford Mail, to the county demanding a £10 refund. He said: “Residents have been ripped off by the county council and we need strongly worded protests.”

Mum-of-two Kelly Faye, 32, of Alexandra Road, said: “If it turns into a way of making money then it is not very fair.

“I would like the money back.”

Bridge Street resident Belinda Cockburn, 65, said: “It is an absolutely pointless, money-making waste of time and a cheek.”

But county cabinet member for transport Rodney Rose said: “As the council does not make an overall profit from residential parking schemes in Oxford, we would find it impossible to give any rebate.”

The county council claims policing residents’ parking and double-yellow lines – 80 per cent of which are in permit areas – should be considered the same thing, even though its papers list them separately.

The county said some yellow lines were put in when the parking bays were introduced – for instance in a narrow street motorists may have previously illegally parked partially on footpaths on either side of the road to allow enough space for traffic to pass. Now, with vehicles parked in a bay on the road there would not be enough space for traffic to pass if other motorists still parked on the footpath opposite, so the yellow lines would distinguish that.

A spokesman said: “To ensure that the introduction of any controlled parking zone itself (ie the introduction of bays etc) did not create any traffic flow or safety issues that did not exist under previous arrangements and because the formality of informing people where they can park in a controlled parking zone means that there needs to be absolute formality in informing them where they can’t.”

However, the Department for Transport said that yellow lines were only to be used to stop cars parking in an area that would stop traffic flow or be a danger to other road users. They are not part of a parking bay scheme.

The county raised its basic permit charge from £40 to £50 in January.