TWO potential election candidates from a Ross-on-Wye watchdog group have been forced to withdraw after their applications were deemed invalid.

Protect Ross-on-Wye (PROW) had planned to put forward four names to fight for a place on Herefordshire Council on May 4, but mistakes spotted on two nomination papers have cut that figure in half.

Declared invalid

A spokesman for Herefordshire Council said: "Two people standing as potential PROW candidates for the Ross-on-Wye West ward used voters from the town's East ward to propose, second and assent their nominations.

"We therefore had no choice but to declare those applications invalid. It is a shame, but we received the nominations approximately half-an-hour before the midday deadline, which made it too late to do anything about it."

PROW will, however, have candidates contesting the Ross-on-Wye parish council elections on May 4.

Elsewhere, parish elections will be held all over Herefordshire and the market towns, namely Ledbury, Kington and Leominster.

In Bromyard, the election has been declared 'no contest' after the number of candidates failed to match the number of seats available.