TORIES’ DATE TO PICK NEW LEADER INDEPENDENTS DAY IN ASHFIELD BLUE GAINS IN MANSFIELD:

THE Conservatives are due to pick a new leader of Nottinghamshire County Council on Monday.

The party won a majority on the council following Thursday’s elections, picking up 37 of the 66 available seats on the authority.

However, the party went into the election after Kay Cutts, the former leader, announced she would not stand for re-election.

Little information has been revealed about who the new leader of the council will be, or when a new figurehead will be decided.

But now Ben Bradley MP, who also took the Mansfield North seat on Thursday, has confirmed the news – but denied he has considered taking on the role.

He told the Post: “To be honest, I’ve been trying to take a seat from a Labour councillor and there’s been no guarantees at all that I was going to even be a councillor.

“So I honestly haven’t thought about [the leadership of the party].

“It looks like we’re going to have a good, positive majority at County Hall which is a good step and a good bit of consistency and security for the council.

“We’ll see what happens. We’ve got to choose a leader, which we will do on Monday.”

Meanwhile, Alan Rhodes, the former Labour leader on the county council, issued a heartfelt “thank you” message after he lost his long-held Worksop North West seat to the Conservatives.

He said: “Friends, just a short word to say that unfortunately I lost my Worksop North seat on Nottinghamshire County Council today. Thank you to friends, colleagues and officers of the Council for a very enjoyable 17 years.”

Speaking to the Post about what lies ahead for him, he added: “I do not know what is next for me. But I’m not ready to retire just yet. I’ll be looking for my next project.”