TORY district councillors Chris Oliver and Roger Colomb will be fighting it out for the leadership of the ruling group on Wycombe District Council tonight (Monday).

Whoever wins will head a vastly changed council set-up in May, becoming leader of the council and choosing the new cabinet of about six top Tories who will in future run Wycombe district affairs.

The two men, both retired, and considered moderate, highly experienced and bright Tories, were the only ones nominated to take over from group leader Pam Priestley when the lists closed.

She said, when the Conservatives took control of the council after the elections in 1999, that she would do the job for two years and return to the council back-benches for the final two years of the council's four-year term.

Mr Colomb, a councillor for Green Hill and Totteridge, is said to be front runner for the job. He was first elected in 1995 and was chairman of the Western Sector panel until he resigned at the end of last year because progress towards signing contracts for the multi-million pound Wycombe scheme had had not hit target dates.

Mr Oliver, a Princes Risborough councillor, is chairman of the planning, environment and transportation committee, and also joined the council in 1995.

This week people in Wycombe district are being asked to endorse the changes to the council structure, by filling in a response form in the council's newsletter Community Voice.

Back in November people were given three options for a changed way of doing things. They could elect their own mayor to run things, either with a cabinet or a paid council manager, or they could go for the cabinet and leader model.

The government was keen on the elected mayor idea, but no council in Bucks was. In Wycombe 53 per cent of people plumped for the leader model. And now they are being asked to endorse that decision.