A County mayor has criticised Olympic organisers after the long awaited announcement on who would carry the torch through Ledbury revealed not one person from the town but did include a runner from Rio de Janeiro.

Ledbury mayor Allen Conway called it “a ludicrous situation” and added: “Rio de Janeiro is near Eastnor isn’t it? - very close!”

He said he was “not happy” that not a single Ledbury person would be in the line up and would discuss the situation at a meeting between the Ledbury Torch Olympic Committee and Herefordshire Council on Monday.

He added: "I believe a Ledbury runner should be involved. We've had nominations from Ledbury. I personally know of one applicant."

Coun Conway declined to say who that was.

But one nominee for a torch bearer was Bank Crescent pensioner and keen runner, Terry White, who did not even know he had been nominated until a rejection letter fell through his letterbox from the London Olympic Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG).

Mr White, aged 85, who recently ran a half-marathon in three hours, said he wasn’t disappointed, because he hadn't been told that his name had been put forward as a torch bearer.

But he also questioned why no-one else from the county had been picked.

He said: “If they are running through Herefordshire why don’t they have local people?”

The five four minute stages for the Olympic Torch through Ledbury on Thursday, May 24, will be paced by athletes from Stonehouse, Cheltenham, Lechlade, Worcester and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Town councillor Bob Barnes, chairman of the town’s Olympic Torch Committee, “I would liked to have seen two to three Ledbury people there.”

He added: “Bringing 2,500 flagwaving children to the streets is a great spectacle anywhere. This is a big event for us, and one we will not see again.”

Nearby Malvern fared only slightly better, with just two of the 14 people carrying the torch through its streets coming from the town itself.

Bafflingly, other torchbearers from Malvern are being sent elsewhere in the region, some up to 30 miles away.

A spokesman for LOCOG declined to discuss individual runners and stages but said: "We do, obviously, like to have some local people. But people have been nominated from outside the country and sponsors have been bringing people in as well.

“Runners from all over the world will be carrying the torch. It is a global thing and we are welcoming the world this summer.”