Three political parties were today preparing to tip the balance of power away from Colchester Council's largest elected group - the Tories.

At a special meeting last night the Liberal Democrats, the second-biggest party, agreed to form a coalition with Labour and the Independents.

Liberal Democrat group leader Martin Hunt said the cabinet composition, due to be announced later today, will be almost proportional to the number of seats held by the three parties.

The move threatens to sideline the Conservatives, who have the largest number of seats, but who lost their majority when voters went to the polls last Thursday.

The party rejected proposals for a rainbow alliance made up of cabinet members from every elected party.

Labour group leader Tim Young said seven coalition conditions put forward by his party had been approved by the Liberal Democrats.

These included a review of the waste contract to ensure incineration is not introduced, the reintroduction of the 9am start time for concessionary bus travel, a commitment to a new bus station in Colchester and a review of the funding arrangements for Firstsite:newsite and the new community stadium.

Conservative group leader and current council leader Robert Davidson said: "It's rather ironic that we remain the largest group with the most people voting for us, but have no control. We made significant progress in the four years we were running the council."

10:39am Friday 9th May 2008

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