LIBERAL Democrat city councillors will make a last ditch effort to stop controversial plans to hike parking charges in Headington.

Currently residents pay £1.70 to park for up to two hours in the Headington and St Leonard’s Road car parks, which are operated by the local authority.

But charges, which are likely to be passed in the council’s budget next week, would increase the charge to £2 for parking for up to an hour and to £2.50 for between an hour and two hours.

The council said it had listened to more than 500 people who rallied against its initial proposal to introduce a £2.50 charge for parking for up to two hours by ditching it earlier this month.

But Lib Dem councillor Mohammed Altaf-Khan attended the authority’s executive board meeting earlier this week and called for the revised changes to be altered again over worries they could deter people visiting local businesses.

Mr Altaf-Khan said: “I am not sure it’s been taken on board. [The board member for finance] Ed Turner made it clear that they want to put up these charges and thinks it should go ahead regardless.”

He said he felt the policy to charge more in the car parks would be ‘very damaging’ to traders.

The Lib Dems will submit an amendment to Monday’s budget in an attempt to stop the charges being introduced in Headington. The group will complain that the proposed 135 per cent increase for an hour’s parking – from 85p currently to £2 – is ‘unparalleled’ elsewhere across Oxford.

In 2011 the council agreed to the current two-hour tariff for Headington’s car parks.

Its aim was to encourage shoppers and visitors to the suburb’s attractions, including its popular Farmers’ Market.

Elaine Bellenger, who has run fashion store Monaco in Old High Street since 1995, said the council should listen to traders and residents to keep parking charges as low as possible.

She said: “We’re not a wonderful shopping destination, we are just a community. Everybody’s affected by this pricing.”

She added: “This last Christmas was tough with the Westgate opening. It’s not easy because you have got to compete against internet shopping.”

At the city council’s executive board on Tuesday, planning board member Alex Hollingsworth said the local authority does not think the changes will have a negative impact on businesses – despite it expecting some ‘resistance’ to the changes.

He said analysis of car parks in Headington and Summertown showed that the council expects the usage to remain ‘broadly similar’.

He added: “If parking charges are too low our experience is that that parking spaces are occupied by employees which prevents customers from making full use of the car park.”