by Alex Claridge

aclaridge@thekmgroup.co.uk

The Labour Party has contrived to score a spectacular own goal after it failed to submit nominations for a ward it is targeting in the upcoming city council elections.

It had been hoping to mobilise student support for the Blean Forest ward in an effort to oust Tory council leader John Gilbey.

Electoral law required the nomination papers to be served to the Electoral Registration Office by noon on Monday.

But Labour's agent for Canterbury wards Andrew Fenyo admitted: "Through no fault of the prospective Labour party candidates, the relevant nomination papers for Blean Forest ward were not received on time.

"As of this morning, the matter is still the subject of an ongoing internal investigation by the Labour Government Committee, which oversees election matters for the Labour Party in the district.

"Labour members have worked hard in Blean Forest and were hopeful for a good result and we are very disappointed at the situation. We apologise to the residents of Blean Forest."

Liam Preston, a former student, was one of the intended Labour candidates and had been hoping to generate votes for the party from students as Kent University is in Blean Forest.

He said: "It's obviously very frustrating and it would have been an interesting election.

"There's nothing we can do about it we can do about it now, but Labour still has a lot of fantastic candidates in other wards."

The two-seat ward is now almost certain to be a straight run-off between the Conservative and Liberal Democrat candidates plus two Green Party candidates.

Lib Dem group leader Alex Perkins said: "It's the biggest cock-up I can remember in the 25 years I've been involved in politics.

"The Labour Party in Canterbury is tiny, disorganised and has very little support and I feel very sorry for Liam, who has been badly let down."

Cllr Gilbey, who represents the ward with fellow Tory Hazel McCable, said he had not been overly worried by the plan to try to remove him from the seat.

"It's democracy, I believe in democracy and I believe you get what you vote for," he said.

"These sort of 'decapitations' for political reasons are quite common across the country, but they are counter-productive as they don't take into account the views of the people living there."