HOUSING and infrastructure are among the key issues for candidates in next week's local elections.

One third of West Oxfordshire District Council seats will be up for grabs on Thursday, with opposition parties hoping they can make inroads into the Conservatives' substantial majority.

The Tories occupy 32 seats on the council, four times more than the second biggest party, the Liberal Democrats, who have eight.

Despite an uncertain political atmosphere nationwide, council leader, James Mills, pointed to an investment in sports facilities and the council's affordable housing record.

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He added: "A Conservative led district council helps protect our local landscape with funding for the Cotswolds Conservation Board and Wychwood Project. It regularly ranks as having one of the best recycling rates in England.

"We support our village communities with facility and activity grants. We support Chipping Norton Theatre with revenue funding.

"We support our high streets with free car parking. We campaign for the £160 million to improve the A40. This isn’t a Brexit vote. This is about delivering for West Oxfordshire."

Elsewhere, ex-Big Brother contestant Derek Laud will stand for the Lib Dems in Witney West, while the party's West Oxfordshire leader, Andy Graham, will stand again in Charlbury and Finstock.

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He said: "There's much support on the doorstep for the dualling of the Cotswold line and the Witney to Oxford line as well as the Lib Dem stance on infrastructure first and housing second.

"Lib Dems want to prioritise younger fist time buyers by encouraging one, two and three bed homes but not four and five bedroom.

"People feel the Lib Dems are listening and are promising their support and will be voting for us."

Labour councillors are standing in every ward and group leader Duncan Enright pledged a difference 'for the better'.

He said: "All year round Labour councillors and campaigners run street stalls and knock on doors, working to serve our district as best as we can.

"It is through this local work that we have led community campaigns, for example the successful Save Cogges Surgery, investing in council-provided low-cost homes and Build Shores Green A40 Junction Now, with a petition going to council this week.

"From housing issues to litter, potholes to planning, every day your Labour team is listening and working for you."

Read again: Call to build Shores Green sliproads in Witney

Meanwhile, the Green Party has candidates in 11 wards across the district. Its West Oxfordshire press officer, Stuart Macdonald, said: "The Green Party is truly democratic, a grassroots party made up of ordinary people, not the privileged establishment.

"It is a radical party, asking questions others do not dare to ask. Why is there so much new housing in West Oxfordshire and so little new infrastructure?

"Why is nothing done about pollution in the Windrush and about Witney’s Bridge Street, suffering from the most toxic air in West Oxfordshire?"

Desmond Clews, UKIP's single candidate in West Oxfordshire, will stand in Carterton South.

Among his key policies are 'keeping council tax as low as possible while protecting essential services', protecting green spaces by building on brown field sites, and mending potholes.