IMPOSING parking charges is rather like dropping a big stone in a pond: just watch the displacement ripple out.

The decision to do away with free parking at Cutteslowe Park, Alexandra Courts, Port Meadow, Hinksey Park and Sunnymead Park was always going to see people using those facilities seek out free spots in neighbouring streets.

Even the most novice council officer would have understood that before implementing it.

But now we are in the position where a solution is being sought because of the problems it is causing neighbours, especially those in Cutteslowe.

The problem is that whatever scheme is implemented, you will just cause issues elsewhere. Dare we say it, but if a parking permit scheme or daytime restriction is brought in, some of those neighbours experiencing problems will themselves go and park in other streets – just one more ripple, you see.

The imposition of parking charges was an Oxford City Council decision. Trying to discover the fix is now the domain of Oxfordshire County Council .

We would be interested to know what, if any, discussions took place between the two authorities prior to the decision.

There is a classic whiff here of one of the problems of two-tier local government where one authority makes a decision based on its own interests and dumps a problem in the lap of the other.