THE validity of council results in South Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse were called into question last night after a damning report on the running of May’s local elections.

An independent review highlighted a series of problems during May’s local elections, including an issue with the firm that printed polling cards.

The report revealed 2,035 postal votes were not delivered, while more than 2,250 polling cards were never printed.

David Buckle, returning officer and chief executive of both councils, said: “Once we had hit problems with our printer we were always going to struggle to keep the show on the road.”

Meanwhile, the planning of the election count in Thame was also criticised in the report.

The report led to questions over whether the inability of some people to vote could have influenced results.

South Oxfordshire councillor John Cotton said: “With so many people unable to vote you have to wonder about the validity of the results in some wards where it was very close.”

In the Vale’s Abingdon Fitzharris ward, Conservative Holly Holman beat Liberal Democrat Richard Gibson by just six votes.

There was a recount in South Oxfordshire’s Didcot Ladygrove ward, where Independent Neville Harris polled 948 votes and Conservative Roger Hawlor 903 votes.

Mr Cotton added: “We want to ensure that everyone who wants to vote can vote, and also be confident that the election result that is recorded is a fair one.”

Local democracy consultant Tim Revell published his report yesterday, laying bare problems with the company that printed polling cards.

The councils decided to hire Wearside-based Paragon Group UK Ltd to print election material, claiming no Oxfordshire print firms “had significant electoral experience”.

But Paragon instead arranged for a Derby-based sub-contractor to do the physical printing. The sub-contractor withdrew from the work following a “catastrophic” system failure on April 7.

It was not until April 14 that Paragon decided the work should be carried out in-house, said Mr Revell.

The report said the plant was relatively new, and no-one had experience of printing election material.

Mr Revell, who was paid £7,500 to carry out the probe, said: “The withdrawal of the sub-contractor on April 7 with no notice resulted in problems right the way through to the count at Thame in the way that an earthquake may result in a tsunami causing devastation far away.”

No one from Paragon was available for comment last night.

Mr Revell also reported there was inadequate planning and organisation of the count at Thame, where problems included staff being asked to move their cars during the count.

Days before the election, South Oxfordshire and Vale councils said all postal votes should have arrived by April 30.

But last night Mr Buckle said: “I was not aware of the extent of non-delivery of poll cards or postal votes until after May 3, hence my comment was made in good faith.”

Mr Buckle added: “There are a number of changes that we can, and will, make before we next run district-wide elections.

“We must also improve our communications with voters, candidates and agents.

Mr Buckle said he had not yet received a returning officer’s fee and the matter would be discussed by him and the two local authorities at a later date.

The report and its recommendations will now be discussed by South Oxfordshire District Council’s scrutiny committee on Thursday.

The catalogue of problems comes a year after thousands of people in the Vale were sent polling cards with the wrong polling stations printed on them. Again a mistake with the printer was blamed.

affrench@oxfordmail.co.uk