Swindon Council has welcomed a High Court decision to overturn an election in which the wrong candidate was elected as a councillor. 

Highworth had a voting population of around 6,400 before the town council poll in May and only 2,477 ballot papers were issued.

However, more than 40,000 votes were counted and the Conservative candidate Pauline Webster was declared the winner.

A legal challenge was immediately launched, claiming that block votes for the Conservative candidates had been counted for each of them rather than split between them.

The High Court has now overturned the election result.

A Swindon Council spokesman said: 'We have carried out a thorough lessons learned exercise in the wake of May's local elections to ensure this does not happen again.'