Complaints have been made about the delivery times of postal vote forms in East Oxford.

Sushila Dhall, who stood unsuccessfully as Green Party candidate in Oxford East, said she was unhappy that some people did not receive their postal vote forms until shortly before the election.

Ms Dhall said: “I met one woman who only received hers the day before the election.

“It was too late to send it off. She took the postal vote form to the polling station and was told that she had to get it to the Town Hall by 10pm.

“She was unable to do so because of her young children, so she lost both her local and General Election vote.”

Earlier this month, the Oxford Mail revealed 657 postal vote packs had not been sent out to Oxford East voters on time.

The forms had been mistakenly returned to the council by its contractor, Electoral Reform Services, and some had still not arrived by Tuesday, May 4.

A month earlier, people in Cowley alerted election officials after 100 polling cards were left in communal areas at a block of flats. The city council apologised.

Green city councillor Nuala Young said she believed the lateness of postal votes could have been significant in the Oxford City Council election in the St Clements ward, which the Lib Dems won by 14 votes.

She said: “My fellow councillor Mary-Jane Sareva lost her seat at St Clements by only a few votes.

“Since then I heard from many people that they would have voted for her if they had received their postal vote forms in time.

“I gather that the forms had not arrived in our area by May 4, that’s two days before the election. But they had arrived in other areas a week earlier. “ Jeremy Thomas, the returning officer at Oxford City Council, said: “The St Clements ward has been no more affected by postal vote non-delivery than any other area of the city.

“The vast majority of Oxford City postal packs were dispatched on April 22 and all were dispatched by April 27. Electors had the opportunity until 5pm on polling day to request a replacement if they had no been delivered.

“The Green Party did not raise the issue with me at the weekly forums that I held in the run-up to polling day or by any other means.”