FEARS have been raised that dozens of Selby district residents will be unable to vote because their streets have not been registered by council chiefs.

The news came after a street of recently-built houses, off Flaxley Road in the town, was found to be missing from the electoral roll.

Coun Steve Shaw-Wright spotted the mistake after a homeowner in Garden Court contacted him to complain he had been disenfranchised.

When he quizzed council chiefs over the error, he was told the slip-up had happened because the electoral services department had not been notified about the new homes.

He said: "The residents said they are paying their council tax but can't vote and they feel aggrieved by it. They thought because the council knew they were there that they would tell everybody else, but they didn't. I think it is utterly stupid."

Coun Shaw-Wright blamed the blunder on layers of "bureaucracy and red tape" that meant electoral officers could only find out about new homes through the council's wheelie-bin suppliers.

He said he was told the district's council tax department was not allowed to pass on information about new ratepayers, blaming "data protection reasons".

But, he said, as a councillor he was handed details of every new tenant that moved into his ward.

"It is just bureaucracy and red tape gone mad, but it does mean that some people who would come out and vote can't do so," he said.

"There are dozens of them. This could be happening right across the district with all the new properties."

He said the problem had also affected The Chimes, off Flaxley Road. "We are just falling down somewhere,"he said.

Richard Besley, electoral services officer for the council, said the street had been missed off because his department had not been notified and nobody from it had applied to be added to the electoral roll.

He said: "Unfortunately, we were not aware they were there. Nobody had informed us to get them on the register. They had not asked for a form, so they were not registered.

"The council tax department have various data protection issues so they won't tell us that people are there, which is unfortunate."