DISASTER was narrowly averted for some candidates in this year’s local elections who had the wrong information to stand for town council.

Changes brought in by the Boundary Commission for England have altered the areas covered by Northwich Town Council.

Brian Jamieson, from Northwich’s Labour Group, said this caused issues for prospective candidates because the wrong Electoral Register had been sent out, which candidates need to fill in their nomination forms.

Brian said: “It would have been a problem if I hadn’t intervened because they’d issued all the registers in the old wards.”

Brian had a list of the new wards from the Boundary Commission but some candidates were still working from a list of the old wards, which had been provided by Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWAC).

The old wards were Castle, North Witton, Leftwich, Winnington and South Witton.

The new wards are Northwich Bridge, Northwich Leftwich, Northwich Winnington, Northwich Witton and Northwich Greenbank.

Brian contacted CWAC to find out which list was the right one.

“Eventually I got an answer from CWAC right on the deadline saying I was right and they had to re-issue all the registers,” he said.

“Everyone was crossing names and numbers out and luckily we got it in on time.

“If I hadn’t intervened all the nomination forms would have been put in with the numbers wrong.

“It was a bit of a job to figure it all out.”

A spokesman for Cheshire West and Chester (CWAC) said: “There was an issue with the candidates because registers were sent out containing the old ward names.

“But this was just information that the candidates had and has not gone out to the general voters.”