THE Conservatives have stormed to an emphatic victory in the South Bucks District Council elections – increasing their headcount to 38 out of 40 councillors.

The party held 36 seats and made two gains, taking a seat from the Lib Dems in Iver Village and Richings Park and another from the Beaconsfield Independent Electors Association (BIEA) in Beaconsfield West.

Geoff Grover, BIEA, (456 votes) narrowly lost his Beaconsfield West seat to Tory Matt Denyer (519), while Lib Dems Steven Hay and Christopher Woolley did not get enough votes in Iver Village and Richings Park to hold a Lib Dem seat.

The overall turnout was 42 per cent.

A meeting of the Conservative group tonight will decide the leadership. Current leader Adrian Busby will again put himself forward after winning in Beaconsfield North.

He told the Bucks Free Press: “I'm very very pleased with the result, we fought a good campaign about delivering value for money for our residents.

"I think the result today says we are doing a pretty good job and there wasn't a shortage of opposition. I had a Lib Dem standing in my ward but we got out on the streets, leafleted and talked to people.”

Lib Dem councillor Alan Oxley was appointed as chairman of the council's Overview and Scrutiny Committee in the last term in a bid to enhance scrutiny of decisions.

And Cllr Busby said he is not worried about complacency creeping in. He added: “Having Alan Oxley as the chairman of Overview and Scrutiny has been one of the good things we have done because it gives the opposition an opportunity.

“I believe all councils need scrutiny, but I think we are a very united Conservative group and we deliver what people are looking for.”

He said the council would now look forward to plans to merge its management team with Chiltern and Wycombe district councils, as well as tackling the “thorny” issue of parking in Beaconsfield and Gerrards Cross.

He added that protecting the Green Belt would remain the authority's “priority policy”.

South Bucks District Council is a small authority with a budget of about £10 million per year. It is responsible for services such as rubbish collections, planning, benefits, licensing, car parks and environmental health.

Councillor Oxley, Lib Dem, said: “I'm really honoured that the public of Iver want me back. I'm quite relieved... I feared the worst for some time. When you're out talking to people the view of the Lib Dems wasn't too good.

“When I first joined South Bucks I was a single Lib Dem on my own, so I'm back where I started. It's substantially better than it being 100 per cent Tory.

“I'm disappointed we didn't get two people back in Iver. In truth it's been a bad day for the Lib Dems as a whole.”

See link below for full results.

The Beaconsfield Town Council results are as follows:

Graham Davie (Beaconsfield Independent Electors Association) , Steve Jones (Tory) , Joy Legg (BIEA) , Alastair Pike (Tory) and John Read (Tory) elected in the Beaconsfield South ward. Paul Henry (BIEA) misses out.

In Beaconsfield West, Ken Brown (BIEA), Graham Corney (Tory), Geoff Grover (BIEA), Sheela Mackintosh (Tory) and Sandy Saunders (Tory) were elected. John Meredith (BIEA), Marian Rigby (Tory), Nico Sacchetti (BIEA) and Deirdre Smaje (BIEA) missed out.

The Beaconsfield North ward was uncontested.