Only a handful of town and parish councils in South East Cornwall will be holding elections on May 4 – because not enough candidates have put themselves forward to trigger contests.

Each local council has a certain number of seats, from five on the smaller rural councils to around 20 in the larger towns.

If the same number of candidates come forward as seats, these people automatically become councillors in an uncontested election.

In some cases, fewer nominations than seats are received, meaning that more councillors will need to be invited onto the council (‘coopted’) by existing members.

Of the some 50 town and parish councils in the Cornish Times readership area, only seven will be holding elections next month. Those in rural areas are: Botus Fleming, Lanteglos-by-Fowey, Morval, Pensilva and St Ive, and South Hill.

And among the district’s main towns, only two, Saltash and Lostwithiel, will see voters chose between candidates to represent them on the town councils.