IT is not the most taxing job to ensure wards are matched with the right streets in the run-up to the local elections.

Council officials are

busy trying to make sure one of their most important days of the year goes without a hitch.

But bosses in Mid Sussex are hiding their embarrassment as they prepare to conduct an election using the WRONG

boundaries.

Voters will go to the polls on May 4 to elect a new parish council for Hassocks, replacing the parish councils for Clayton and Keymer.

It covers four new wards including Keymer South, Keymer North, Clayton and Stonepound.

Householders in Dale Avenue, Hassocks, were included in the new Keymer South ward but an error by staff handling the election process means up to 200 Dale Avenue residents will instead vote for candidates in the wrong ward, Keymer North.

Error

A spokeswoman for Mid Sussex District Council, which is responsible for conducting the election process, said: "The original information that was provided to us by Clayton and Keymer parish councils was incorrect and we duplicated their error."

To ensure the next parish elections after this year are held at the same time as the next district council elections, Hassocks parish councillors in all wards will be elected for three years.

Despite the mistake, there are no plans to re-run the polls in Keymer North and Keymer South before 2003.

Peter Martin, vice-chairman of the outgoing Keymer Parish Council, who will be standing for election in Keymer North, said: "It's quite extraordinary and it shouldn't have happened."

Resident John Annett was furious. He said: "I think it's deplorable. It seems to be total incompetence.

"They get paid enough to do all these things and get them right."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.