Two candidates were biting their nails when they went through three recounts early on Friday morning at Witney's Windrush Leisure Centre.

It could not have been a closer call in the votes cast for Tory Harry Watts and the Lib Dem contender Peter Madden, slugging it out in a neck to neck contest for the district council's Carterton South ward.

On the first count of the 985 voting slips Mr Watts, seeking re-election, came out winner by just one vote. His opponent asked for a recount and emerged on top - by a single vote.

On a second recount he also won but the Tories asked for a further recount. To no avail, however, as Mr Madden, a retired ex-RAF flight engineer, was finally declared winner with 493 votes to 492.

He said: "It was nailbiting stuff. Funnily enough, ours was the first election box to come in for counting, so it was an exciting way to start the night."

He returns to the district council for a second spell, having served for four years in the 1990s.

Mr Watts, a businessman who runs the Doris Watts residential home in Milestone Road, said: "It certainly was a thriller and I was disappointed. But I'm not bitter, it's part of life."

He has recently bought the site of the former Carterton market and is campaigning for weekly markets to return there. He added: "It became an election issue and I am considering whether to take the matter further."

* Election staff had a longer night of it than in previous years. Apart from the recounts, they also had to check 20 per cent of all proxy and postal votes by scanning signatures and dates of birth through computerised records. New legislation requires councils to do this to deter election fraud.