A councillor who gained the most votes at a recent election faces a court case for her seat after a blunder led officials to announce the wrong winner.
Julie Green, the Conservative candidate for Nelson Town Council’s Marsden West ward on 4 May, secured the most votes and should have been announced as the winner.
But an error meant that returning officer, Pendle BC’s chief executive Rose Rouse, declared Labour’s Patricia Hannah-Wood had secured the seat.
Legal uncertainty meant the incorrect announcement was not reversed – even though officials, including Ms Rouse, swiftly realised the error – and Ms Hannah-Wood has so far refused to step down.
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