BOLTON election chiefs and Royal Mail bosses have blamed each other for the town's postal vote shambles.

The man in charge of the election, Bolton's returning officer, Bernard Knight said: "We had all our ballot papers with the Royal Mail in plenty of time and we know all our papers were delivered to them."

But the Royal Mail dismissed the criticism insisting: "We have delivered all the voting packs we have received in good time.

"The Royal Mail operation has been a success and any problems have not been of the Royal Mail's making."

The war of words came as Bolton Council opened a fourth polling station, in Westhoughton, earlier today after it was feared another 500 voters had not received ballot packs.

It is now thought that at least 6,000 voting packs have failed to arrive across the borough ahead of today's local and Euro-elections.

Emergency measures - including the opening of the polling stations and delivery of new ballot papers by hand to the worst-hit areas - were introduced when Mr Knight returned from holiday earlier this week.

Last night, Mr Knight issued a prepared statement referring to the council's shock over the postal votes crisis.

Mr Knight said the council would be drawing up its own report into the problems which would be looked at as part of an independent review by the Electoral Commission.

His statement said: "As soon as problems emerged we took immediate action to alleviate the situation as best we could by re-issuing papers, hand-delivering forms and opening up polling stations.

"The issues with the non-delivery came as a shock to us as we had all our ballot papers with Royal Mail in plenty of time to meet the national deadline and we know all our papers were delivered to them.

"Unfortunately with postal deliveries still continuing, the scale of the problem did not come to light until quite late on and we are unclear about the overall picture. Unfortunately, Royal Mail have been unable to give us any information about areas of non-delivery. We did a street check on those papers returned to us and it became obvious there were strange patterns developing. This was confirmed by candidates and party workers who were also giving us feedback.

"I do sympathise with those people affected by the Royal Mail problems and I would like to assure everyone that we are doing everything within our power to improve the position in the worst affected areas.

"We know Bolton is not the only area affected by these problems but we have taken every possible step we can within the timescales and capacity available to us to make it easier for people to vote. There will be an independent evaluation by the Electoral Commission into all the postal elections trial which will look into problems encountered and we will be preparing our own report to feed into this.

The Royal Mail, however, dismissed the allegations that the postal service was in any way to blame.

A spokesman said: "We have delivered all the voting packs we have received, in good time. We highlighted problems with missing voting packs last week, to the council, as soon as they arose, and have since been in constant contact with the council.

"The Royal Mail operation has been a success and any problems have not been of Royal Mail's making."

Bolton Council's fourth polling station was opened at Westhoughton Town Hall this morning to cover the wards of Westhoughton South and Westhoughton North and Chew Moor. The other three are in the wards of Halliwell and Rumworth. All four will be open until 10pm today.

Mr Knight added: "I would also like to reassure everyone that it's not too late to vote, even it you have not received your ballot form."

Figures earlier today revealed that in the whole of the Bolton area, 38 per cent of the electorate - 72,132 people - had returned ballot papers.

Voters who have not yet received their ballot papers will be able to walk in and vote at these locations.

They will have to sign a declaration of identity form which must be witnessed.

Others who have had their papers delivered can drop them off at the centres.

The polling stations in Rumworth, Halliwell and Westhoughton are open until 10pm tonight. And anyone can come into Bolton Town Hall and get a replacement voting form until 10pm. Please bring some identification with you."

The opening of a polling station was today welcomed by candidates of all parties standing in the Westhoughton South.

Labour candidate Trevor Leese said: "I am pleased everyone will have the opportunity to vote.

But he added: "Clearly something has gone wrong with the delivery of postal ballots around here and I want a full inquiry".

Leading Liberal Democrat Cllr David Wilkinson said: "At least everyone now has the opportunity to vote."

Conservative candidate Mike Pepper said: "We welcome anything that makes voting easier but we should never have have had this forced on us by the Government in the first place."