THE Conservative leader elect of Wycombe District Council, Roger Colomb, has picked a team of relative newcomers for his cabinet, which will be running district affairs from May.

Six of the seven only joined the council two years ago, when the Tories won back control from the Lib Dems and Labour, but Cllr Colomb has no problem with their relative inexperience.

Cllr Colomb, who was chosen as council leader in the new year, has been a councillor since 1995. The longest serving cabinet member is Peter Cartwright, who was first elected in 1976.

The others, who were first elected in May 1999, are Tony Green who will become deputy leader, Bill Bendyshe-Brown, Paul Rogerson, Alan Fulford, Audrey Jones and Julia Langley.

Cllr Colomb said: "We have identified and selected the people we think are capable of taking on the challenges."

The district council has reluctantly taken on the changes set out in the Local Government Act, which forced it to scrap the old system of committees headed by a chairman.

People in the district were asked how they wanted the council run; a directly elected mayor and cabinet of councillors, or a leader chosen by councillors and cabinet. They chose the leader and cabinet model, the system that is already operating at Buckinghamshire County Council.

Chiltern District Council is also going for leader and cabinet, but has yet to decide who the cabinet will be. South Buckinghamshire District Council is still asking people what system they want. As the district is so small, people there still have the right to pick the status quo.

The new structure sees the departure of some familiar faces from top jobs. Pam Priestley, the current leader, decided to return to the backbenches. Bill Jennings, chairman of the policy and resources committee, did not apply for a cabinet job and is expected to become chairman of the council in May.

Chris Oliver, chairman of the planning and economic development committee, who also stood in the leadership election, also did not apply for a cabinet job.

Julia Langley, current chairman of the leisure committee, will be responsible for community affairs which includes crime reduction, economic development, Europe and the arts. Peter Cartwright, chairman of housing and economic development, will run housing. Alan Fulford, chairman of the Western sector panel, takes on major developments. Paul Rogerson takes over planning and Bill Bendyshe-Brown gets customer services, which includes waste, emergency planning, sport, leisure, tourism and car parks. Audrey Jones is responsible for resources, which is basically administration and council employees

Deputy leader Tony Green, who currently heads up the IT panel, will be responsible for strategic development, external communications and member development, while the leader will direct policy and deliver the budget.

The cabinet is made up of Tories but one of the three new select committees will be chaired by an opposition member. The new system comes into being at the council's annual meeting in May and will run for six months as a pilot project. Cabinet meetings will be monthly.