THE MYSTERY of how nearly 900 votes were mislaid at last week¹s election count has led to demands for a recount.

Barnsley Independent Group claims there was a council cock-up after it appears some of the votes cast for Old Town BIG candidate Peter Middleton were missing when official counters added up his total.

The draft result handed to borough secretary and returning officer Andrew Frosdick stated Coun Middleton had beaten Labour candidate Martin Dyson by fewer than 10 votes when he had in fact won by 846.

The mistake was rectified before the final declaration was made but BIG members are alarmed such a large error passed through so many checks before being picked up and are concerned that potential errors may have gone unnoticed in wards where the results were closer.

It only came to light when Mr Frosdick told Mr Middleton what had happened in the bar afterwards. Coun Middleton said: "After the result I went up to the bar and Andrew Frosdick came to me and said they had misplaced a pile of my votes, about 900.

"He said when the result was given there were only nine votes in it, that it didn't seem right and he said he told them to count again." Mr Frosdick admitted that the initial result was incorrect but told the Chronicle he could not explain how the mistake occurred and would not elaborate on his comment to Mr Middleton that votes had been mislaid. BIG leader Coun Ron Fisher says the blame lies with the organisation of the count at the Metrodome. Ballots were first sorted on tables designated for each ward and placed into bundles of 50 for each candidate.

But they were then taken away to another part of the room to be tallied up in readiness for the declaration of the result.

This area was blocked off and neither candidates nor their counting agents were allowed the access they had at ward tables ­ where they were close enough to keep their own score.

Coun Fisher, who is writing to the Electoral Commission to complain, says in previous years votes have remained on the ward tables which made the process open and transparent.

He added: "I would like to see all these papers counted again in front of the counting agents who were employed for that purpose. People should not have these niggling little doubts at the back of their minds that things are possibly not right."