In ten days time, ministers are set to make a decision on whether to allow the last remaining restrictions on normal life as we know it to be lifted - potentially paving the way for a party season like never before, such will be the euphoria if we are all able to gather again. I for one am very much hoping to be casting aside my face mask and dancing my socks off on that day - if it is deemed to be safe to do so.
However, it also feels as though far from the ‘roaring twenties’ of non stop revelry that many people had predicted would happen when we emerge from Covid, parties may in fact remain a distant memory for some time, with the pandemic potentially evolving into an endemic virus that ebbs and flows in waves.
THREE political parties have agreed to form a coalition to run Oxfordshire County Council. The Liberal Democrat, Labour and Green councillors have joined togeth.
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A DEAL could be struck between Labour and the Conservatives to run Oxfordshire County Council as a coalition.
The ruling Tory group lost nine seats in the local elections and did not have the 32 seats required to be considered the majority party.
It still holds the most seats on the council with 22, but Labour have 15 and the Liberal Democrats have 21.
Councillor Eddie Reeves, the new Tory group leader, has offered Labour an equal share of cabinet representatives in a bid to form an alliance.
He has held talks with Labour councillor Liz Brighouse, who would become the deputy leader of the council if the coalition was agreed.
Richard Webber of the Oxfordshire Lib Dems, and Liz Brighouse of the Oxfordshire Labour Party. LIBERAL Democrats and Greens are set to seize control of the council which runs roads, schools and social care services in Oxfordshire. When the result of the May 6 local election was counted last weekend, the county council – previously run by the Conservatives – was left with no overall controlling political party. But negotiations are now taking place between the political parties to form a ruling coalition. The Lib Dems and Greens are already on the verge of forming a joint group, which would make them the largest political grouping on the council with 24 seats, made up of the 21 Lib Dems and three Greens.
Eddie Reeves A NEW Conservative party leader has been appointed in Oxfordshire after former leader Ian Hudspeth lost his seat in the election. Eddie Reeves, councillor for the Banbury Calthorpe, was elected as the new Tory leader at a virtual meeting between members late on Monday. The solicitor replaces Mr Hudspeth, who was voted a councillor in 2005, who lost his Woodstock seat to Lib Dem Andy Graham by 168 votes. The Conservative group remains the largest on the council, but it now has only 22 seats, far short of the all out majority of 32 needed to claim power. Following them were the Liberal Democrats with 21 seats, the Labour Party with 15, the Greens with three and the Henley Residents Group with one. One seat went to independent candidate, Les Sibley, of Bicester West.