POSTAL voters in North Lanarkshire are being urged not to throw away their ballot papers for the council elections because they remain valid in spite of a faulty guidance note that accompanied them.

Special arrangements have been made with Royal Mail to ensure that a new guidance leaflet is delivered this morning to the 26,500 voters who were wrongly given an illustration last week featuring the cross in a box of the old voting system rather than the preferences indicated by numbers in line with the Single Transferable Voting system now used.

But council officials were at pains to say that there was nothing wrong with the original ballot papers, which should still be used. Anyone who has already returned their ballot paper and fears it may have been filled in wrongly is asked to contact the council's election office (01698 302119 or 01698 302340).

The council is disputing SNP estimates that the cost of the bungle could reach more than £50,000, insisting it will be less than £20,000. They repeated the pledge that the taxpayer will not meet the cost of this.

Tory leader Ruth Davidson spent much of yesterday morning manning a phone bank in Perth urging voters around the country to use their postal ballot to elect more Conservative councillors.

She argues that with turnout in the forthcoming council elections predicted to drop to 45%, it means that one-third of the half-a-million votes involved could be cast within the next few days.

She said: "Because of the multi-member voting system used in the council elections, candidates do not need to get a majority to be elected.

"It means that with candidates needing as little as 25% in some areas of the country to win a council seat, the results of many wards could be partially decided by the end of the week."