THE Tories were taking stock and moving into action this week after a landslide victory over the Lib Dems in the Malvern Hills District Council election.

"It's wonderful," said group leader Serena Croad on Tuesday. "I'd be foolish if I said we weren't expecting to win, but I don't think we anticipated winning on this scale. The actual amount of seats is far more than we expected. I think a lot of it has to do with the hard work put in by our individual candidates in their wards, good local people working hard."

The group's deputy leader Ralph Madden said: "The party came across to people with freshness, youth and diversity."

One of the most contentious issues in the district during recent month has been the closure of town centre toilets, and the Conservatives' election pledge to reopen them in Malvern, Upton and Tenbury undoubtedly played a strong part in the win.

"We made it perfectly clear that we'd reopen the public conveniences if we win, and that no doubt helped us, but there were other issues as well."

She said that on the doorsteps, one of the fears raised most commonly by voters was about weekly refuse collections, even though no proposal to change it to fortnightly has been made in this area.

"We will be keeping a lookout for any attempts tor pressure us into this sort of scheme. People made it very clear to us that they do not want wheelie bins and they do not want fortnightly black bag collections," she said.

As for the public toilets, Coun Croad said the new administration planned to bring the subject to executive board on May 22, with reopening following as soon as was practical.

Coun Madden also prom-ised that council finances will be made easier to understand, and that the administration was determined to offer value for money.