The leader of Oxford's ruling Labour party has spelt out his party's key aims after securing control of the Town Hall.

Speaking after Thursday's local elections, councillor Alex Hollingsworth said the group's top priorities were getting the city's finances back on an even keel and delivering better services.

He said: "The past two years have been anything but financially stable for the council, which has culminated in the sale of property to pay off debts.

"We cannot allow this to continue. The impact on services is disastrous and the impact on staff morale is calamitous when people do not know where the next round of cuts will have to be made to balance costs."

Cllr Hollingsworth said the Labour group would be working with council staff to bring services up to the standard people expected.

He singled out the housing benefit service as an area in need of improvement, but praised the dedication of its staff, who had worked hard to reduce a backlog of claims in recent months.

Leisure services are also on Labour's action list. Cllr Hollingsworth said: "We have made an absolute commitment to investing up to £4m, which is the figure leisure service managers have said needs to be spent to bring the leisure centres up to a decent standard."

He also wants action to deal with Oxford's shortage of affordable housing.

Cllr Hollingsworth said: "We're not claiming that homes are going to sprout out of the ground tomorrow, but we need to come up with an active strategy to provide more affordable housing to buy or rent in the city."

Labour won 29 out of a total of 48 seats in the city council elections. The Liberal Democrats won five seats, with the Greens taking three.

Oxford's Lord Mayor Peter Moss has asked us to point out that he had served on the city council for 21 years and not 13, as reported in yesterday's Oxford Mail.

He had stood for election in the St Mary's ward after previously representing Littlemore.