HUNDREDS of elections staff in Wyre Forest have not been paid for working May's elections.

Around 200 staff who covered the Worcestershire County Council elections on May 4, in the Wyre Forest district were left out of pocket when they were not paid for their work at polling stations or counting, the end of May.

But, the deputy returning officer for the county council elections, Ian Miller, apologised to those affected and said they were unable to meet the deadline for processing payments due to the upcoming General Election and expect to make the payments by the end of June.

Mr Miller said: "We are sorry that we have not yet paid the 200 staff who worked on the county council elections four weeks ago.

"This is a direct consequence of the snap General Election on June 8.

"The small elections team has rightly been focussing on meeting all the statutory deadlines for the General Election, including a high volume of voter registrations and new postal vote applications, as well as the myriad of other tasks that go into organising a second major set of elections within five weeks."

Mr Miller added: "As a consequence, we were unable to meet the deadline for processing the payments at the end of May, but we expect to make the payments by the end of June.

"We hope that staff who work at polling stations or counting at the General Election - many of whom also worked in the May elections - will be paid about the same time.

"I would like to thank everyone for the patience and their understanding about the need to prioritise essential tasks relating to the General Election."