Elderly or infirm Bicester residents could miss out on voting in next month's elections because of a delay in polling cards being delivered, a pensioner has claimed.

The cards, explaining how to claim a postal vote, landed on many doormats across the town on Thursday, the day after the deadline to register.

Charles Cowen, 79, of Cedar Drive, said he thought it was an unacceptable error.

He added: "This is the first official thing I have received about the elections. My wife's in a care home therefore she can't exercise her vote very well in person. I had thought the postal vote would fix that.

"It's probably depriving quite a lot of people of votes."

But Cherwell District Council said the polling cards were posted last ThursdayApr12 - seven days before many arrived. Spokesman Tony Ecclestone said: "It would appear that some have arrived too late for the postal vote deadline.

"Whilst it is not a requirement to include the postal vote deadline, it is good practice.

"Because of the compressed election timetable the council has limited time to get the poll card data to the printers prior to posting.

"We have advised people that they can apply for a proxy vote, which most have opted for. The deadline for proxy vote applications is Wednesday, April 25, at 5pm."

He said Cherwell had released two press releases about registration and included an article in the current issue of Cherwell Link.

And he added the Electoral Commission had carried out national publicity alerting people to the deadline.