Royal Mail has apologised after admitting failing to deliver election leaflets for a Scottish Parliament hopeful.
Arbroath councillor David Fairweather stood as an independent candidate for the Angus South seat last May and arranged for Royal Mail to distribute 35,000 brochures on behalf of his campaign.
However, while canvassing in his home town he was repeatedly told his literature hadn’t been received. He made several phone calls to Royal Mail and was initially told all his leaflets had been delivered.
Royal Mail have now admitted that around 10,000 of the pamphlets hadn’t been delivered and have refunded Mr Fairweather his original postage costs of £600.
Mr Fairweather received 1,321 votes, 61 from saving his deposit.
He said: ”Speaking to people I knew in Arbroath two weeks before the election it became clear that people hadn’t been receiving my leaflets.
”I called Bathgate, which said there had been a delay and that the problem would be resolved, but it was already past the deadline for postal votes at that stage.
”Some more leaflets did go out, but 15 postcodes in Arbroath my home town and key target area never received them.”
Royal Mail regional operational director Paul Kelly said the failure to deliver the pamphlets was because of their similarity to those of another candidate.
Fellow Arbroath councillor Peter Nield also stood as an independent candidate in the north-east regional list.
In a letter to Mr Fairweather, Mr Kelly said: ”When the leaflets were unpacked ready for distribution our colleagues mistakenly assumed that the two postings were in fact only the one for yourself, leading to some of the material not being delivered.
”We believe that as a result, while some of the two leaflets were correctly delivered, around 10,000 of your leaflets failed to be delivered. We apologise for the error.
”These circumstances also explained why when you queried delivery of your leaflets at the local delivery office you were told, wrongly as it turns out, that the leaflets had been distributed.
”We have raised with local managers the need to review their procedures to ensure that proper controls are in place to avoid this kind of problem happening in the future.”
Mr Fairweather said he didn’t understand how the mix-up could have happened, adding: ”We don’t look alike and my leaflets had a picture of me and my dog, plus they were given to Royal Mail a week apart.
”However, I’m happy they have done a proper investigation and happy to accept the £600. I wasn’t going to win the election because I can’t beat the big party machines but it would have made me one of the best independents in the whole of Scotland vote-wise.”