AFTER costing taxpayers more than £300,000 through six consultations, transport bosses are again sitting down to consider a parking permit plan for East Oxford.

A consultation on the £50-a-year schemes for the Magdalen Road and Divinity Road areas closed on Friday.

Oxfordshire County Council says the controlled parking zone (CPZ) schemes are needed as very high demand leads to “obstructive and unsafe parking”.

And it says the situation will only get worse early next year when an extension to Oxford University’s Old Road Campus opens.

But most residents the Oxford Mail spoke to at the weekend gave the plans the thumbs down.

Mum-of-two Sue Snelders, 52, from Bartlemas Road, said there would still not be enough spaces if permits were introduced.

She said: “I think most people don’t want to pay £50 a year for permits.

“You only get 25 visitor permits a year and after that you have to pay.”

The charity worker said: “There has been no county council-organised public meeting as part of the latest consultation – I think that needs to happen before the parking zones are introduced.”

Divinity Road trainee teacher Rachel Regan, 40 said: “I don’t want to have to pay for a parking permit when I am not going to be guaranteed a space anyway, as I get home from work quite late.”

Neighbour Dr Barbara Gorayska, 63, branded permits an “imposition” that would cause problems for her daughter when she visited from Witney.

She said: “Even though it is choc-a-bloc there is always one space left so I don’t want to pay for permits.”

But Oxford Brookes University real estate management student Thomas Ridge, 20, welcomed the move.

Responding to residents’ concerns that many students hadcars, he said: “There are eight of us living in this house. Only one of us has a car and gives the others lifts to the Wheatley campus.”

The three new zones would cover the Divinity Road area, and north and south of Magdalen Road.

The total cost is expected to be about £290,000 with Oxford University contributing £257,000.

A Magdalen Road CPZ was approved by the county council in 2009 but put on hold amid objections from some residents.

Letters have been sent to more than 3,000 addresses within the proposed zones, giving details of the plans.

Cabinet member for transport Rodney Rose said: “Officers will start going through the responses from residents this week.”

Mr Rose will make a decision in public on March 22.

Residents will be able speak at the meeting at County Hall, New Road, Oxford.

Anyone who would like to know how they can address the meeting should email graham.warrington@oxfordshire.gov.uk.