THE new leader of Ox-ford’s Green Party said the group needs to “get its act together” if it wants to be a political force in the city.

The party lost two seats at Oxford City Council elections earlier this month – reducing the number of Green councillors to five.

But David Williams, who succeeds Craig Simmons as group leader, said the party had a big opportunity to grow.

The Greens lost seats – Carfax and St Clement’s – and two of its most prominent councillors, Mr Simmons and Sushila Dhall, did not stand for re-election.

The party saw its number of city councillors rise from just three in 2002 to eight by 2006, but it has lost seats at both the 2008 and 2010 city council elections.

Nationally, the party returned its first ever MP, former Oxfordshire county councillor Caroline Lucas, on May 6. Mr Williams said that had given supporters heart. Despite a poor showing in the city, Mr Williams denied people were turning away from the party in the city.

Speaking to the Oxford Mail yesterday, he said: “It’s not that the Green vote isn’t there, but locally we need to regroup and reorganise ourselves.”

He claimed the party suffered at the city council elections because it could not compete with the bigger parties’ spending on their General Election campaigns.

Mr Williams said the departure of its Oxford East parliamentary candidate Peter Tatchell last December through ill health had set the Green campaign back.

He added: “The Green Party has always had a weakness in terms of organisation and has fewer resources.

“It’s not a lack of enthusiasm, it’s the money. We will have to raise money from members.”

Mr Williams, who retained his Iffley Fields seat, was elected as group leader last week.

Before joining the party in 2003, he served as a Labour councillor in Rochdale for 20 years and stood as a Labour Party candidate in three General Elections.

He left Labour because he was disillusioned by the party’s direction and said many Liberal Democrats would now be feeling the same way after their party formed a coalition with the Conservative Party.

He added: “There will be dis-illusioned Lib Dem members and activists and we see a major growth area for us in North Oxford.”

He also said Ms Lucas’s success in becoming the first Green MP, in Brighton Pavilion, was a boost for the party’s ambitions in Oxford.

He said: “We have made it on to the national stage and that is very significant. It shows we are not going away and that our policies can produce people who can represent at the House of Commons.

“If we can get our act together, get the organisation right and mobilise the Green vote, we can win in Oxford.”

cburatta@oxfordmail.co.uk