West Oxfordshire Liberal Democrats were celebrating their 'best ever' results following the local elections.

The council remains under no overall control but Liberal Democrats won three extra wards and remain the biggest party with 21 seats.

The Conservatives lost five of the seven wards they were defending while Labour and the Greens gained one ward each.

The Tories are now at their lowest number of wards in the council's 50-year history.

Witney Gazette:

Lib Dem leader Andy Graham said: "This is the best result the Lib Dems have ever had in West Oxfordshire.

"It's been a brilliant day for the Liberal Democrats and a better day for the community of West Oxfordshire.

"We've been on the doorstep and people have told us we love what you're doing, you're working in partnership with other parties and you're getting things done."

He said negotiations would now start with Labour and the Greens about continuing the West Oxfordshire Alliance coalition, which runs the council which "is the natural thing to do".

Witney Gazette:

Mr Graham said voters told him they liked the fact the council has been "more proactive".

"People like the fact we own Marriotts Walk and that belongs to them. And we’ve invested in it to support local traders and we need to do more of that," he said.

“And people are really pleased that we’ve done a lot of work on sewage discharge reduction and taking Thames Water to task."

He added: "West Oxfordshire is no longer a Tory heartland. People have changed and they actually now think about how they vote and much more interested in their own local area and issues.

"In Chadlington and Churchill where I live it’s the first time ever that the Liberal Democrats have actually gained that seat.

"And that’s because we were visible – we were the only ones that actually listened to the community."

Mr Graham said Jeremy Clarkson, who lives in Chadlington, may not welcome having a Lib Dem councillor, but they are braced for criticism as Clarkson's Farm series three airs.

He said: "Jeremy Clarkson will no doubt have his own say on his own television show so we recognise that.

"We are ready. He’s all about entertainment, he makes a lot of money out of his TV programme but at the end of the day we have to look after our community.”

Former county cabinet member for travel and WODC deputy leader Duncan Enright held Witney East for Labour with a massive 1,019 votes.

Witney Gazette:

He said: “It’s been a terrific election for us in the Labour party.

"We’ve won another seat in Witney South, which is great.

"We’ve hung on to the three that we took at the top of the game in 2020, and we feel really positive about this, and we think that we’ve made advances across the district as well."

He said he was aware his own ward had been targeted by the Conservatives.

"We even had the chairman of the Conservative Party nationally in my patch," he said, "and the MP has spent most of his time there, but I’m very glad to see we were able to see off that challenge.

"And it was really a strange contrast between positive campaigning by certain parties - I notice the Green Party picked up a seat on that basis - as well as negative campaigning by others.

"I think the message from today is negative campaigning is not as effective as people think it is.

"The Conservatives locally have not put forward a positive vision of how they would make the district better and that’s not great.

"That’s what people want to hear, they want to know what you’re going to do, not just hear personal slurs and negative campaigning about other parties."

Mr Enright said he would enter discussions with Lib Dem and Green colleagues over forming an administration.

"We will start negotiating," he said.

He said the poor local election results for the Conservatives nationally meant there should be a General Election as soon as possible.

He said: "Mixed in among all of this is a broad national message and that’s that people are ready for change.

"The Conservatives have run out of ideas.

"They’ve got the smallest [number of councillors] they’ve ever had in the 50 years of West Oxfordshire District Council.

"That says something locally but it’s also nationally as well."

Witney Gazette:

Oxfordshire County Council's Lib Dem leader Liz Leffman easily held her Charlbury and Finstock seat on the district council with 785 votes.

Ian Hudspeth, who was leader of Oxfordshire County Council for nine years between April 2012 and May 2021, was unable to win Woodstock and Bladon, which was a Lib Dem hold.

Conservative deputy group leader Liam Walker said: “I want to thank everyone who voted for their local Conservative candidate and despite our opponents trying to get voters to focus on national politics, we have successfully stopped the Lib Dems winning overall control of the district council.

“Residents tell us time and time again that they’re fed up with their council tax going, their money being wasted on pet projects, and their local services declining.

“We will continue to work hard for this amazing district and in holding this coalition of chaos to account.”