POLITICALLY Oxfordshire is an ocean of Conservative blue with a little red dot in the centre – Oxford.

Cherwell District Council is one of the Conservative-dominated councils, along with South Oxfordshire, Vale of White Horse District Council and West Oxfordshire.

It’s likely to remain Conservative when all the district’s votes have been counted following the vote on May 3, but there could be some shifts.

Ian Middleton, a Green candidate in Kidlington, said there could be changes in the southern parts of Cherwell as people are aware of disruption that could be caused by building 4,400 homes there.

Independent permission is being sought by the council – but campaigners from all sides, including some Conservatives there, oppose any possible building.

The Greens and the Lib Dems have agreed to work together in Kidlington to capture votes there.

Ian Middleton will stand in Kidlington East, while Lib Dem Alaric Rose will stand in Kidlington, Yarnton and Begbroke.

Mr Middleton said: “The wish to build on the Green Belt which has been opposed pretty much universally. Not because we are opposed to building affordable homes – which we have argued for since we have been a party– but because those houses need to be built in the right places.

“The location that they are proposing could cost £2m an acre and the council is only helping enrich landowners and developers."

He refers back to the meeting in February which decided the Local Plan would be sent off – and said he was disappointed with a lack of opposition.

Mr Middleton said: “It was obvious that by the time we got there that it was a done deal. By 2017 Barry Wood said the council had agreed to build 4,000 houses.”

He said he was ‘under no illusions about trying to shift the [Conservative-led] juggernaut' but that he was going to try to 'shake' the district's politics 'up a bit'.

Mr Rose said: “By working together and encouraging local voters to use their votes intelligently we have a strong chance of winning these seats from the Conservatives and giving our area a stronger voice at Cherwell District Council.”

Labour leader Sean Woodcock said his is the only party that can take votes from the Conservatives.

His party voted against any housing in Kidlington but said it is not totally opposed to all development there. Labour said the building at sites and the allocation there was wrong, not the building there in principle.

Mr Woodcock said the council needs to ramp up building of affordable homes, not just for commuters but for residents who want to live and work in the district’s towns.

He said: “We believe that there’s a major housing crisis – in the country and more locally. There are a lot of houses going up and we believe there is nowhere near the required affordable housing being developed.

“Our key policies are about improving housing and affordable housing locally. There’s a major crisis and not only for people who want to work and commute but there are other people here. There are people in Banbury who get forgotten. They don’t necessarily want to commute to Oxford or Milton Keynes or London.”

Conservative Council leader Barry Wood steered through the controversial plan through the council – but said his party has no strict party policy on where things should be built.

He told the BBC that the planning policy had gone through the appropriate channels and that was subject to strong public consultation.

Mr Wood told a radio debate that he was aware of concerns residents have had over town centres, including Pioneer Square in Bicester.

He said any work to fill up empty units in the centre was ‘not an easy fix’ but that the authority was ‘very much up for the challenge’.

The election and the last few weeks of it have been overshadowed by the death of Conservative councillor Jolanta Lis, who was standing for re-election in Bicester West. That election has been postponed and will be held on June 21.

The count will take place on the morning of May 4.