A defeated parish councillor says he probably lost his seat because postal ballot cards wrongly described him as a Tory candidate.

Wheatley Parish Council candidate Geoff Woolf, 36, who missed out on re-election by just 11 votes, said he was "shocked and disappointed" that almost 50 postal voting cards went out containing the error.

Mr Woolf, of London Road, Wheatley, had been a member of the council for the past four years.

There were 22 candidates standing for 15 seats in the election on Thursday, Mr Woolf finished 16th.

Of the postal ballot cards sent out by South Oxfordshire District Council, which organised the election, 36 were returned.

Another candidate, David Wood, who was elected, was also incorrectly described as a Conservative on the cards.

In the district council election held simultaneously, Wheatley voters elected two Liberal Democrats -- Roger Bell, who also obtained the most votes in the parish election, and Sarah Gray.

Mr Woolf said: "There's a strong possibility that I was not re-elected because of this. I'm outraged, because I strongly believe parish councils should be non-political.

"Secondly, it's not the party I would support. I think it's very worrying that these were sent out without being double checked. For an election, this is very poor procedure."

His only possible course of action is to challenge the result in the High Court, which would cost about £4,000.

Mr Woolf, a technology specialist with the BBC, said he had been the youngest councillor, giving the council a broader section of the village community.

During his time on the council, he helped drive forward a traffic-calming scheme to tackle the problem of rat-running through Wheatley. The project is about to enter its first phase and Mr Woolf fears it may suffer setbacks as a result.

He said: "I have concerns about whether the project might be affected by the new structure of the council."

His wife, Sarah Moorhouse, who is also the parish council clerk, said the error only came to light when a family friend received a postal vote earlier in the week. The couple complained to the returning officer and all the ballot papers were reprinted but it was too late to re-send the postal vote cards.

She said: "I'm just disgusted and shocked that the electoral system is subject to mistakes. Wheatley has a terrible problem with rat running at high speed and my husband was particularly involved with the traffic calming scheme. When we have done polls, most of the village has been right behind it."

Steven Lake, returning officer, said he addressed the error as soon as it came to light so that signs at the polling booth were not affected.

He said: "It was a misprint. I have apologised to Mr Woolf but obviously I don't know whether it affected the outcome and if he gained or lost by it."

Get all the local election results and news here