27 July 2012 Last updated at 10:12 ET

Penlington-Pennington Denbighshire vote mix-up recount

Allan Pennington, left, received votes intended for Paul Penlington at May's council elections

The High Court has ordered a recount in a Denbighshire council election where votes for a Labour candidate were wrongly given to a Conservative rival with a similar name.

Denbighshire blamed human error after votes cast for Labour's Paul Penlington were counted for Allan Pennington.

The council has admitted the Labour candidate would have won if his votes had been correctly allocated.

The recount will take place in secrecy before a court official.

Mr Pennington was declared winner of one of three seats in the Prestatyn North ward in the election on 3 May.

Strict secrecy

The Tory was said to have received 580 votes to Mr Penlington's 366.

But the council later admitted Mr Penlington would have won 605 votes to 340 if the votes had been allocated correctly.

After Mr Penlington petitioned the High Court to have the result overturned, Mrs Justice Slade ordered there should be a recount of the votes cast in the May election.

The recount will take place amidst conditions of strict secrecy in front of a senior High Court official and in the presence of Mr Pennington, Mr Penlington and council representatives.