A DISMAYED parent has spoken of his astonishment at seeing young children break in to a garage and throw unused ballot papers all over the street.

The Preston man, who asked not to be named, contacted the Citizen after we revealed that a large number of important documents - from this year's general election - had been strewn around Avenham in Preston.

At teatime on Tuesday last week the man was waiting for his son outside the doctors on Berry Street when the youngsters broke into a secure garage nearby.

He said some of the gang looked as young as eight, and went on: "I witnessed the children throwing paper about. I thought it was just litter.

"Then I noticed what they actually were and I thought hang on there's something seriously amiss here. There were thousands of them."

A spokesman for Fylde Borough Council, who last week promised to investigate how the papers got there, said: "Under our contract with the printers any additional papers were under lock and key.

"Those papers were spares and after the election they just became waste paper. They were secure but there's not a lot anyone can do if premises are broken into."

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