FEARS are growing that postal problems in East Lancashire could affect next month's council and European elections.

Last week the Evening Telegraph revealed a new delivery system was creating a massive backlog and leaving residents waiting more than a week for their mail.

Concerns that the all-postal ballot for this year's elections could be affected have been voiced by a leading councillor and a trade union.

Colin Rigby, Conservative leader at Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: "We have grave concerns about the ability of the Royal Mail to deliver, and more importantly, collect and return the postal ballot forms.

"We make no secret of our distrust of this system of voting which has been proved to be open to abuse. To compound that we now have the Royal Mail admitting to a backlog of up to one week for deliveries."

Pendle Liberal Democrat peer, Lord Tony Greaves, has also campaigned against an all-postal ballot for the North West.

Ballot papers are due to be sent to homes before the end of the month, but the Electoral Commission, which oversees elections, said it had not set a date for when they should be posted back before election day on June 10.

Royal Mail managers are trying find solutions to the postal problems and a spokesman said the issue was being addressed.

Post workers blamed changes to delivery arrangements for the problems. They say getting rid of the second post has affected the earlier delivery of first class mail.

A spokesman for the GMB union today said the organisation had encountered problems during a postal ballot of workers at an East Lancashire factory.

According to the GMB 411 ballot papers were posted to staff at the factory on April 14, but some only received theirs a week after the closing date for the ballot, April 28.

The spokesman added: "We sent election papers to people who had worked for the company for years and had lived at the same address.

"We are trying to find out if the problems some of the sorting offices have had was the reason some people didn't get them before the deadline."

Burnley Council has set up a telephone helpline and a delivery point for voters. The helpline is 01282 477261/477327 and the Town Hall will be a delivery point from June 1 to 9, from 10am to 5pm, excluding Sunday, and on June 10 from 7am to 10pm.