Oxford City Council

Oxford Town Hall on St Aldate's in central Oxford.

The Oxford City Council provides local government for the city of Oxford in England.

Overview

Between the 2004 local elections, and 2010 the council was in minority administration, first by councillors from the Labour Party, with the Liberal Democrats being the official opposition. In 2006 these roles were reversed, although two years later the council returned to being run by a minority Labour administration. before they took full control in 2010. Despite the stereotypical view of Oxford as a conservative city, there are no elected Conservatives on the city council, although two Liberal Democrat councillors briefly sat as Conservatives during 2007–8. With five city councillors and two county councillors, Oxford has one of the highest Green Party representation for a British city. The Independent Working Class Association has one councillor, and their support is confined to a small number of wards, among them the Blackbird Leys housing estate in the south east of the city. See Oxford Council election 2004 for further information.

Since 2002, elections have been held for Oxford City Council in even years, with each councillor serving a term of four years. Each electoral ward within Oxford is represented by two councillors, thus all wards elect one councillor at each election. Prior to 2002, the City Council was elected by thirds.

In early 2003, the Oxford City Council submitted a bid to become a unitary authority. This was received by Communities and Local Government but subsequently rejected.

Since 2008, Oxford City Council has been undergoing a programme of Business Transformation which is now being embedded in to the City Council in anticipation of further change following the new government of May 2010.

Oxford City Council contains all of the Oxford East parliamentary constituency, which was won by Labour in the 2010 General Election with an increased majority but was until then a highly marginal seat with the Liberal Democrats. The Council also covers part of the Oxford West and Abingdon parliamentary constituency, which was won from the Liberal Democrats by the Conservatives at the 2010 General Election, albeit with a very small majority.

Statistics

Political group leaders and senior politicians for the Oxford City Council (outgoing council at the election in 2010). From left to right: Jonathan Gittos candidate for the Conservatives, Councillor Stephen Brown leader of the political group of Liberal Democrats, Councillor John Tanner senior member of the Labour group, Councillor Craig Simmons leader of the Green group.

Partisan composition

Year	Labour	Lib Dem	Green	IWCA	Independent	Conservative	Source
2000	21	21	7	1	0	1
2002	29	15	3	1	0	0
2004	20	18	7	3	0	0
2006	17	19	8	4	0	0
2008	23	16	7	2	0	0
2010	26	16	5	1	0	0

Partisan control

Majority control of Oxford City Council

Years	Party
2010–present		Labour
2004–2010		No overall control
2002–2004		Labour
2000–2002		No overall control
1980–2000		Labour
1976–1980		Conservative
1973–1976		Labour

Councillors

Ward	Name		Party	Elected
Barton and Sandhills	Van Coulter		Labour	2010
Barton and Sandhills	Mike Rowley		Labour	2010*
Blackbird Leys	Rae Humberstone		Labour	2010
Blackbird Leys	Val Smith		Labour	2008
Carfax	Tony Brett		Liberal Democrat	2010
Carfax	Stephen Brown		Liberal Democrat	2008
Churchill	Joe McManners		Labour	2010
Churchill	Mark Lygo		Labour	2008
Cowley	Shah Khan		Labour	2010
Cowley	Bryan Keen		Labour	2008
Cowley Marsh	Mohammed Abbasi		Labour	2010
Cowley Marsh	Saj Malik		Labour	2008
Headington	David Rundle		Liberal Democrat	2010
Headington	Ruth Wilkinson		Liberal Democrat	2008
Headington Hill and Northway	Mohammed Altaf-Khan		Liberal Democrat	2010
Headington Hill and Northway	Roy Darke		Labour	2009*
Hinksey Park	Bob Price		Labour	2010
Hinksey Park	Oscar Van Nooijen		Labour	2008
Holywell	Mark Mills		Liberal Democrat	2010
Holywell	Nathan Pyle		Liberal Democrat	2008
Iffley Fields	David Williams		Green	2010
Iffley Fields	Elise Benjamin		Green	2008
Jericho and Osney	Susanna Pressel		Labour	2010
Jericho and Osney	Colin Cook		Labour	2008
Littlemore	Gill Sanders		Labour	2010
Littlemore	John Tanner		Labour	2008
Lye Valley	Ben Lloyd-Shogbesan		Labour	2010
Lye Valley	Bob Timbs		Labour	2008
Marston	Mary Clarkson		Labour	2010
Marston	Beverley Hazell		Labour	2008
North	Alan Armitage		Liberal Democrat	2010
North	Clark Brundin		Liberal Democrat	2008
Northfield Brook	Scott Seamons		Labour	2010
Northfield Brook	Stuart Craft		Independent Working Class	2008
Quarry and Risinghurst	Dee Sinclair		Labour	2010
Quarry and Risinghurst	Laurence Baxter		Labour	2008
Rose Hill and Iffley	Antonia Bance		Labour	2010
Rose Hill and Iffley	Edward Turner		Labour	2008
St Clement's	Graham Jones		Liberal Democrat	2010
St Clement's	Nuala Young		Green	2008
St Margaret's	Jim Campbell		Liberal Democrat	2010
St Margaret's	Gwynneth Royce		Liberal Democrat	2008
St Mary's	Dick Wolff		Green	2010
St Mary's	Matt Morton		Green	2008
Summertown	Jean Fooks		Liberal Democrat	2010
Summertown	Stuart McCready		Liberal Democrat	2008
Wolvercote	John Goddard		Liberal Democrat	2010
Wolvercote	Michael Gotch		Liberal Democrat	2008

* By-election

See also

• Oxford local elections
• Oxford Town Hall

External links

• Oxford City Council website