A PARISH council by-election in which 20 people were able to vote despite being ineligible has ended up in the High Court.

Villagers in Church Fenton, near Tadcaster, challenged returning officer Janet Waggott, who is chief executive of Selby District Council, over her role in the election for three places on Church Fenton Parish Council last May.

Susan Babington, Martin Blakey, Sarah Chester and Lesley Wright took a petition to the High Court questioning the election of the successful candidates.

They said two residents of neighbouring Little Fenton and 18 residents of Biggin, who were eligible to vote at the polling station for the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, were wrongly given ballot papers for them to also vote for candidates in the simultaneous parish council by-election.

But the returning officer argued that the election was conducted in 'substantial compliance' with electoral law and the error did

not affect the result.

Judge Saffman, sitting as an election commissioner, said that despite the breaches, this election was conducted substantially in accordance with the law and the votes were not sufficient to have any effect on the election.

He dismissed the petition but said he accepted that the petitioners 'brought this petition to restore confidence in the democratic process and in an effort to stand up for democracy.'

He said they had succeeded in highlighting errors which hopefully would not be allowed to recur and ordered that their costs should be met by the district council.

Mr Blakey said they had been in a 'real David versus Goliath battle' against the 'might of Selby District Council,' with its expensive legal counsel, and what happened in court was 'astounding.'

He said: "We went to the High Court with no legal experience at all, but we had put in our homework and Sarah Chester did an astonishing job as our spokesperson in court with Sue Babington pulling it all together behind the scenes.

“As petitioners we always knew that when we took this to the High Court that the Commissioner could only order a rerun of the by-election if specific laws had been broken in relation to how the by election had been conducted by the returning officer and her staff.

“We now know that despite a catalogue of errors, this did not happen. But we brought this petition to restore confidence in the democratic process and in an effort to stand up for democracy.

“Ultimately we have now achieved our objective of highlighting this fiasco in the high-profile High Court and this case will ensure that future elections are very closely scrutinised to avoid these errors ever happening again.”

A district council spokesperson said: "The petition has been dismissed and the election was conducted in accordance to the standards demanded by Parliament."