Labour were celebrating a "gobsmacking" victory in an Oxford City Council by-election last night after its candidate Bob Timbs polled 784 votes to Liberal Democrat challenger Nathan Pyle's 487 votes.

The atmosphere at the Town Hall was tense before the count for the Lye Valley ward as Labour feared a backlash from the party's troubles on the national stage.

But the mood soon turned in Labour's favour as it became clear the party had secured a majority of 297 on a relatively high turnout of 30.9 per cent. The Conservative candidate Judith Harley polled 150 votes and Larry Sanders for the Green Party received 64 votes.

A jubilant Mr Timbs, of Normandy Crescent, Cowley, said after the result was declared shortly after 11pm: "I am gobsmacked. I thought it was going to be really tight.

"We won on local issues. People know me as chairman of the Horspath Road Residents and Tenants Association and they know they can rely on me."

Mr Timbs said his priority would be to campaign against family homes being turned into multi-occupancy dwellings badly looked after by landlords.

9:12am Friday 22nd September 2006

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