THE Tory leader of Worcestershire County Council has spoken of his pain at the party’s election losses – admitting he is “kicking himself” at some of the defeats.

The Conservative group lost 10 politicians in last Friday’s tense count, leaving the party with an overall majority of just three.

Two cabinet members, education chief Jane Potter and David Thain, who spearheaded the council’s £11.8 million broadband strategy, were among those to lose seats in Redditch during a day of shocks.

Two other wards previously deemed to be ‘safe’ Tory seats, in Croome and Clent Hill, were also claimed by independents.

And despite excellent Tory performances in Malvern and Wychavon, it lost three seats in Worcester, including veterans Allah Ditta and Mary Drinkwater.

The fall-out means two new cabinet posts worth £14,681 are up for grabs – with Councillor Adrian Hardman saying he intends to stay on as leader. He said: “Things didn’t quite pan out the way we expected them to and it hasn’t been a great triumph for us.

“I am kicking myself about losing two safe Conservative seats to independent candidates, how that happened I don’t know.

“And we certainly seem to have got it wrong in Redditch, I didn’t see that coming.

“The problem there is that when you have 16,000 to 20,000 voters, it’s hard for a councillor to be truly ‘local’ and I think national issues tend to float much more strongly.”

Phone calls will be taking place this week about which politicians want the coveted cabinet posts, ahead of the next full council meeting on Thursday, May 16.

“I’ll be starting to think about it this week,” said Coun Hardman. “The problem is that the people we’ve lost have got skills which are not easily replaceable.

“But there will have to be changes as I think keeping people in the same jobs doesn’t develop or stretch them.”

Meanwhile, Worcestershire’s Liberal Democrats have also talked of their sadness at losing four councillors, taking them down to three.

The Conservatives gained three seats in Malvern, two of which were from the Lib Dems.

Coun Liz Tucker, group leader, said: “I am deeply disappointed because we’ve lost some really good people.

“The votes were so tight, it was extraordinary.”

Labour gained eight seats to take the group to 12, while the UK Independence Party made an historic breakthrough by winning four and the Greens won two.