SOUTH Oxfordshire District Council could be led by a ‘rainbow coalition’ after the Conservatives were ousted at Thursday’s dramatic local elections.

The two largest parties, the Liberal Democrats and Greens, do not even have a leader and cannot form a majority administration without help from other groups.

Green representatives, who formed a pact with the Lib Dems prior to the vote, have suggested they will try to abolish the cabinet structure and may not elect a leader ahead of crunch talks to form a new administration.

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One of the Lib Dems’ two previous councillors, Sue Cooper, has said parties of all colours could be involved in the new administration.

The Benson and Crowmarsh councillor did not rule out Conservative involvement in the administration but said it was unlikely.

She also revealed that her party was likely to elect Chalgrove’s David Turner as leader at a meeting on Thursday.

Mr Turner, who confirmed he was ‘likely’ to be in charge, said the two parties, plus Labour and Henley Residents, would meet on Saturday.

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After winning 27 of 36 seats last time around, the Tories fell to just 10 seats last week, leaving the council with 12 Liberal Democrats (10 more than at the last election), 10 Conservatives (-17), five Greens (+5) three Labour (+2) three Independents (-2) and three from the Henley Residents Group (+2).

Mr Turner, who has been on the council for 24 years, said: “I think the electorate would be quite pleased to see political parties co-operating.

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“There will have to be compromise... different parties stood on different platforms and we have to put things together we can all sign up for.”

Mrs Cooper added: “The idea is to have a rainbow coalition. I don’t know how many parties, all that we have done in advance is agree to work with the Greens.

“It’s all very tentative at the moment… some dealing will have to be done. We have got a lot of work to do.”

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Wallingford’s Green councillor Sue Roberts suggested her party would take radical new steps and could scrap the cabinet structure.

Dr Roberts explained: “We take a very fresh approach to the way government should happen. I regard (inter-party co-operation) as grown up politics, where we have respect for different views.

“We don’t like the cabinet positions - we would like to get rid of it.”

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Dr Roberts, the prospective parliamentary candidate for Wantage, added that she was not convinced the council needed a majority to function and questioned whether the Greens need a group leader.

Ahead of a party meeting today, she said: “I just think its going to be a completely different thing.

“We do not support the Local Plan or Expressway.”

Her colleague Robin Bennett, of Berinsfield, was also positive about a coalition and said there was ‘good will across the board’. But he is personally opposed to a deal involving the Conservatives.