Independent candidate David Leake was stunned when he discovered that his name had been left off the ballot paper sent to postal voters.

Mr Leake, 55, is standing as an Independent in Oxford's St Clement's division in the county council election.

He found out about the mistake when a voter who applied for one of the postal ballots contacted him and told him that he was not on the list of candidates for the June 7 poll.

Mr Leake, a gardener at Corpus Christi, who is campaigning against the Oxford Transport Strategy, said: "I'm obviously not very happy about this. If I'm not on the postal vote then I think the election in St Clement's should be declared invalid."

Mr Leake, who wants High Street reopened to traffic, discovered the error on Saturday but was not able to contact the city council until yesterday because staff had an extra day off after the Bank Holiday.

"Every vote counts and while I'm sure this is not deliberate, you could only describe it as gross incompetence," he added.

City council election officer Martin John admitted that an error had been made and said the incorrect ballot paper had been sent to 209 postal voters.

They are now being sent a correct ballot paper with all five names on, and told that they need to record their votes again because only the second version will be accepted.

Mr John said: "It's lucky the mistake has been discovered well before polling day so that it can be rectified."

The other candidates for the St Clement's division are: John Courouble (Lab), Philip Hodgson (Con), Craig Simmons (Green), and Martin Stone (Lib Dem).