CONSERVATIVES have increased their dominance of Buckinghamshire County Council.

After laast Thursday's elections the council, always Conservative run, now has 44 of the 57 seats four more than before. There are two Labour members (down three) and 11 Lib Dems (up two).

David Shakespeare, re-elected as one of two Conservatives in the new Rymead ward and confirmed as leader of the Conservative group on Friday, will be re-elected as council leader when the new council meets for the first time, on May 19.

He told Midweek: "I am very pleased that the public gave their support to Conservatives continuing to run an efficient and effective county council."

One familiar High Wycombe member, who failed to be re-elected, was Labour's Clare Martens. She did not get selected for a winnable seat and so stood again councillors Shakespeare and Betty Lay.

Leaving the count on Friday she told Midweek that she was not so much disappointed for herself but that she regretted the fact that the council had lost, either through retirement or non-election, so many experienced members who would have held the Conservatives to account, such as group leaders Pam Crawford and Trevor Fowler who had retired, Lib Dem Michael Brand who had failed to get in in South Bucks, Labour's Ian Bates, who had not been reelected and Brian Stenner who had retired.

Julia Wassell, faced with the prospect of leading a group of just two said she would now have to put in some hard work to get to know aspects of council work of which she did not have detailed knowledge.

She said that in the past the two opposition parties had had a long-term alliance and she had not thought of them as being in a different party. She had relied on the two leaders, Cllrs Crawford and Fowler, and she had found Cllr Crawford, for example, a good role model.

She said that one of her roles in the council would be to represent the Labour party in Government and to do more to explain what the Government was doing. There will be 16 new faces on Buckinghamshire County Council when it holds its annual meeting on May 19 Among those who will not be there are two Conservatives, who lost out to the Lib Dems, Andy Huxley in Aylesbury and Kathie Webber in South Bucks.

Mr Huxley hit the headlines when he lost his driving licence for drink driving offences, but Aylesbury town has always been a Lib Dem stronghold and the party has now won his seat back.

Ms Webber may have lost out through ward boundary changes. Cllr Shakespeare said he could not think of any other reason. "She was a very hard working member of the council," he said.

Another councillor to lose his seat was Marlow Lib Dem member Maurice Oram.

Mr Oram blamed the changes in ward boundaries which converted his single member ward into a large two-seater. Conservatives hold both seats in the new ward; Frank Sweatman is an existing member and he is joined by Doug Anson, who was until a couple of years ago a Lib Dem but changed sides.

A disappointed Mr Oram said that what he would miss most was being a member of the fire authority on which he had served for 17 years.

Elsewhere in the county all the cabinet members who stood held their seats.

Cllr Shakespeare will be announcing his new cabinet on May 19. Changes to the constitution mean the cabinet could change from one of eight members to one of ten. But in any case there is bound to be one new face. Mark Taylor has retired as cabinet member for resources and will have to be replaced.

Mr Shakespeare also has to make up his mind whether any of the chairs of council committees should go to members of the opposition.

In the previous council, Cllrs Crawford and Fowler both chaired scrutiny but now all the chairs seem destined for Conservatives. That is what the Tory members want. Another new aspect to the council is that there are four more members of the ethnic minority community on board, two representing Wycombe wards and two in Aylesbury. Previously Aylesbury's Chester Jones was the only non-white councillor.