Boosted by a vote which saw the party more than double its representation at Shire Hall, the Green Party says it is looking forward to close co-operation with the Liberal Democrats – and hopes the winning group from Friday's election will harness its collective experience to push specific ideas for business growth.

With the Conservatives more than decimated and Labour emerging with just one win, the Lib Dems took 27 seats on Gloucestershire County Council, but the party fell just one councillor short of operating an outright majority. Broad expectations now are that this group will seek to operate effectively on a minority administration basis.

But making an early intervention today, Adrian Oldman, a Green town councillor with Stroud Town Council and spokeperson for the Green group, told Punchline-Gloucester.com that effective ideas for business growth and job creation need to be delivered on a cross-party basis. Amid growing acceptance that the only economic growth can be green, he said all nine councillors were ready to work with the administration.

Cllr Oldman said: "We are not fluffy, tree-hugging people, we come from all walks of life and and we are a group made up of people with extensive experience as managers, chartered accountants, of work within the prison service and banking."

He added: "The idea that growth at all costs can be encouraged by local government is for the birds and some of our key aims will be to ensure the local economy really is that."

Delivery of such services as school meals and transport need to have built-in social value, "looking at the whole system, rather than purely bottom-line costs," he said.

As a director of Stroud's community investment company The Bike Drop, which has been running for four years and now employs seven people across its sites in Brimscombe and Cirencester, Cllr Oldman said the initiative had recently taken on two apprentices in a scheme which blazes a trail for job creation through sustainable business.

He added: "The idea for the business grew out of the initiative to deliver bikes to people during the Covid crisis and that formula has continued and now also works in parallel for the distribution of Stroud's Good On Paper magazine.

The success of the third sector in Stroud was also underlined by the story of The Grace Network – the parent organisation of The Long Table food scheme – he said, which now employs some 150 people.

"What we hope is that the Libs Dems don't focus on the sexy stuff – there is so much that can be done to create employment, ideas which could go under the radar of the new administration. We hope the Lib Dems come together with us to see the power of community-driven enterprise."

Speaking of Friday's poll result, Cllr Beki Hoyland, interim Green group leader, said she was thrilled: "These fabulous results are a sign of increasing disillusionment with the two main parties and a growing interest in the Green ethos of social and environmental justice and hard-working local activism."

She added: "With this larger Green group we will have greater influence on decision making in our own right."

Cllr Chloe Turner, re-elected for Minchinhampton, said: "We are absolutely delighted to get so many of our target candidates elected and to hit our target of doubling the size of the Green group on GCC. We have taken three seats from Labour, as well as the new seat of Haresfield and Upton St. Leonards. Tired of the two main parties, so many voters turned to us, attracted by our positive, hopeful message of fairer, greener communities."