VOTERS go to the polls today to select a new councillor, after it was discovered the man voted in at the last elections was ineligible for the post because he was a teacher at a Wanstead secondary school.

Mark Gittens, a teacher at Wanstead High School, was elected for Labour in Chadwell ward on may 6, but a closer examination of the rules uncovered the fact that Mr Gittens was not entitled to stand for election as he was technically an employee of the local authority.

Both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have chosen candidates who lost their seats in May's election - Gary Monro and John Tyne – while Labour are putting forward former president of the National Union of Students Wes Streeting.

Meanwhile, Wilson Chowdhry is standing for the Greens, former Hainault councillor Julian Leppert for the BNP, and Paul Wiffen – who was forced to withdraw from the last election after making controversial comments on the internet about the Queen, Muslims and Romanian gypsies – is standing for the UK Independence Party.