WEEKS of campaigning for would-be county councillors ended on Friday as votes were counted in the four districts of Buckinghamshire.

The vote had been held at the same time as the general election poll, but Buckinghamshire County Council candidates were made to wait until the following day for their votes to be counted.

Ballot papers had been locked up the night before after the general election results were declared.

Many of the candidates had been up most of the night, celebrating or crying over the general election results, but still turned up showered, shaved, bright-eyed and optimistic the next day.

The counts did not take long, with only a few thousand votes involved for each of the 54 divisions.

The count at Wycombe began at 11am and one of the first to be officially returned.

One of the most delighted candidates, was Mike Appleyard, county councillor for Wooburn, who had been worried he would lose his seat. He has been a councillor since 1989, is a previous chairman of social services and later of the education committee, and was made cabinet member for schools in November last year in the reorganised cabinet-style council.

In 1997 he beat the Lib Dem candidate, Brian Pollock, by 212 votes and both Labour and the Lib Dems had targeted the seat as one they could win this time.

But Richard Cummins, chief executive of Wycombe District Council, acting as returning officer on the day announced that Cllr Appleyard had doubled his majority over Mr Pollock.

The news brought immediate congratulations from a host of people, among them members of opposition parties.

His future in the cabinet is the next thing to be be sorted. He wants to get back into the eight person team but this depends on sorting out differences about his role with county council leader David Shakespeare.