PARKING fees have once again been brought to the fore.

The Sainsbury’s car park on Saturday was chaos. It was totally overwhelmed by cars. There were lots of fed-up motorists who were forced to sit in their cars for up to an hour while the problems were eventually sorted out.

One of the issues may be the traffic lights at the exit of the car park not letting enough vehicles out in one go. But this is just part of the problem. Free parking in Sainsbury’s has been a huge hit with residents and we are all using the car park. The problem is too many of us want to use the car park.

And because Cherwell District Council still charges in own its car parks, people all converge at the Sainsbury’s car park. What is going to happen when more of the shops and restaurants open in Pioneer Square and elsewhere in the town and more people pour into Bicester?

The town centre is finally seeing more footfall as residents return to shop there. But if there are problems in the town’s only free car park on a regular basis, it will put people off. Cherwell council said it would review the situation. We are two months down the line and, so far, police have been called to the Sainsbury’s car park three times to deal with backed-up traffic.

Maybe more detectors on the traffic lights would help a little, but it’s down to Cherwell to cut its parking fees and bring it in line with the free parking on offer at Sainsbury’s. That is the only way to really solve this problem