CRAVEN District Council has come under fire from General Election candidates after it emerged thousands of people had experienced delays in receiving postal vote ballot packs.

Questions have also been asked about why the home of a district council candidate was going to be used as the polling station in a Craven village until earlier this week.

'Problems with the printers' have been blamed for a two-day delay in sending out ballot packs to about 12,000 postal voters in the Skipton and Ripon constituency, 7,600 of them in Craven.

With many people asking for postal votes as they knew they would be away on business or on holiday on election day - next Thursday - it is feared that at least some may not get to vote as they may have left before their ballot pack arrived.

Postal votes have to be received by 10pm on the day of the election or will not be counted.

Labour Parliamentary candidate Malcolm Birks said: "I am very concerned. Several constituents have contacted me to express their frustration that they will now be unable to vote because they are about to go on holiday."

Green Party parliamentary candidate Andy Brown said : "Many postal voters will work away from the constituency. Postal votes only arrived on Monday and there is a bank holiday weekend coming up. I don't care if these people wanted to vote for me or for someone else, they have the right to do so and it is outrageous that they will not have the chance."

Liberal Democrat candidate Jacquie Bell said she was worried that such a large number of delayed papers could affect results in close ballots.

"The delay is of concern," she said. "It may mean that they lose their opportunity to cast their vote if the papers arrive after they have gone away."

And UKIP candidate Alan Henderson said that delays of this nature were 'inexcusable'.

He added: "It clearly throws the election timetable out of balance and could be seen to favour the established parties at the expense of the newer political parties such as UKIP. There should be a full investigation as to what went wrong."

Gillie Gill, the election agent for Conservative candidate Julian Smith, said she hoped that "nobody has been disenfranchised by this".

She added: "The election body seems to have done everything it can in the circumstances."

The council's chief executive, Paul Shevlin, who is acting returning officer for the elections, put the blame squarely on the firm printing the postal voting papers.

He said: "The delays are extremely disappointing for voters, candidates and election staff. My staff have worked extremely hard to ensure that postal vote information was provided on time so it is deeply frustrating that the printers have not been able to deliver to the deadlines that were set.

"The priority now is getting the ballot papers out, but I will be asking searching questions of our suppliers after the election.”

Meanwhile, the council has had to contact voters in Halton East after it was realised that Sweetbriar Cottage in the village was set to be used as its polling station.

It is the home of Steven Brookes, who is standing as an Independent for the Barden Fell ward in the district council elections.

Mr Brookes said: "I offered our conservatory as a possible venue long before I knew I was going to stand in the election, so no blame can be attached to the council. They have contacted me to say they will be making alternative arrangements for the village."

A council spokesman said: “It would be inappropriate to use this address as a polling station and the booking has been cancelled. A temporary caravan will be provided. There are 75 electors who use this polling station who will be informed of the change.

“Sweetbriar Cottage has not been used as a polling station before... and we were not informed that there was a conflict until this week. As soon as we were made aware, we took action to make alternative arrangements.”