MORE than 400 students are to resit an exam next month after their papers were lost in the post.

A total of 830 exam papers were lost after the blunder by Parcelforce which had been asked to take them to the examiner's house in the Midlands.

It was only when the examiner rang Runshaw College, Leyland, two weeks later to ask where the General Studies A-Level papers were that the mistake was realised.

And although many students are glad to have the chance to resit the exam -- which means more time to revise -- college spokesman Jim Smith was furious and has vowed never to use the company again.

He said: "I think it is scandalous that something like this could happen. I was dumbfounded when the examiner rang us up asking where the papers were.

"It's terrible that a company the size of Parcelforce could allow this to happen."

A spokesman for Parcelforce said it had searched high and low for the missing papers, but to no avail and vowed not to give up hope of finding them. But Mr Smith said students were resigned to taking again the exams they first sat in January.

The resits are scheduled for next month for the 400 first year students that had their end-of-year papers lost.

The other 430 papers were from second year pupils, who will not have to resit. Mr Smith said an average mark from their other two papers in the subject would determine their final result.

He said: "I have talked to the students at length and while they are disappointed, some are also quite relieved because it means they have time to do more work. But I am furious with Parcelforce. We have not had a significant delivery since, but I will not be using them again."

A spokesman for Parcelforce said they had exhausted all areas in a thorough search, but could not find the papers.

She added: "We made widespread, detailed searches for the missing papers but regret that they never came to light.

"We kept the college fully informed of our efforts and have apologised."