FORMER BBC Oxford presenter Tim Bearder won the Wheatley county council by-election for the Liberal Democrats.

Mr Bearder won with an increased majority after a by-election was triggered by its former Lib Dem county councillor Kirsten Johnson moving to North Devon to stand for its parliamentary seat.

In a somewhat ill-tempered by-election campaign, the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives criticised each party’s position on the potential Oxford-Cambridge expressway.

Mr Bearder won 1,380 votes, with the Conservatives’ John Walsh second with 705. The Labour Party’s Michael Nixon won 178 votes.

The Lib Dems also held onto the Grove and Wantage division in a by-election on November 15. Jane Hanna won the seat after former county council chairman Zoe Patrick stepped down.