SOMERSET County Council has moved to defuse a growing political storm over the number of independent candidates standing in June's county council elections.

The authority found itself at the centre of controversy and fielding complaints both from candidates and local authority electoral officers after listing 19 candidates as 'Independent' on its website.

Norman Tottle, the county council's senior committee administrator, told the Free Press yesterday (Thursday) the website was being amended as only eight official Independent candidates were standing.

The remaining 11 had not aligned themselves to any political grouping and an original county council decision to assume they were Independent had been reviewed.

He said: "Officially there are only eight Independent candidates and it was originally felt we should allocate something to the further 11 who did not put any description on their nomination forms.

"However, we have had so many complaints we are altering the webpage and those that left a blank on the form will be left blank."

It appears candidates who deliberately left a blank on their papers were among those who complained about being labelled as Independents as they did not intend to form alliances with any other group in the corridors of power.

The situation will be familiar to voters in West Somerset, where an Independent Coalition controls the district council.

A handful of district councillors have refused to join the coalition and belong to no group or political party, describing themselves as "Unaligned Independents".

The county election row was sparked by Conservative candidates stating on their election leaflets that there were just eight Independents standing, while some Independent candidates claimed there were 19.