THE Tories could be neck and neck with Health Concern on Wyre Forest District Council by the New Year, it has been claimed.

Conservatives want to gain two more councillors from the ruling party after a spate of defections from Health Concern, Tory leader Stephen Clee said.

Two Health Concern members had "expressed an interest" in joining the party, which is now only four seats behind Health Concern with 12 members, he said.

Councillors who decided to take the bait would leave after Christmas, which would put the Conservatives on an equal footing with Health Concern in time for the June 12 elections - when all 42 district council seats are up for grabs.

Mr Clee - a district councillor for Bewdley - said: "I have been in contact with two councillors but it is up to them to decide what they want to do. I will not push them.

"They are an unhappy bunch because you don't lose three councillors in three weeks if everything is rosy."

The news comes after Health Concern lost three members - Tony Hinton, Maureen Aston and June Salter - since the May 1 elections, when the party's councillor quota slipped from 21 to 19.

The rumour mill has gone into overdrive since the news broke last week that Tony Hinton and Maureen Aston had turned Tory, including a suggestion that Health Concern leader Howard Martin was himself about to join the Tories.

But Mr Martin brushed off the rumour and said: "I was elected on a Health Concern ticket, that is what I campaigned for and that will always be my position. I am 100 per cent Health Concern and I will stay that way."

And Mr Martin - a district councillor for Franche - urged voters not to jump to conclusions following the month of upheaval.

"They have defected for their own reasons. People are individuals and they will make their own choices. Health Concern is a very broad church where we allow freedom of thought and these people are free to make their own decisions," he said.