ONLY seven of Ryedale's 115 parishes will have elections on May 3 - and three have no candidates.

When nominations closed, three parishes - Foxholes, Nawton and Westow - failed to provide any nominations, while Amotherby, Barton-le-Willows and Cropton were three councillors short in each case.

Moira Bell, Ryedale District Council's electoral registration officer, said the procedure for finding councillors will now have to be restarted in areas where there were insufficient nominations.

Nominations had been received for Foxholes and Nawton councils, but were received after the legal date.

Meanwhile, Aislaby will be having its first election for 37 years. Lining up will be John Ellis, Dennis Hartshorne, Edward Hartshorne, John Lumley and Reginald Pickering.

Other elections will be as follows:

* Byland-with-Wass: Christine Bradley, Peter Gilruth, Michael Matson and Peter Rymer.

* Newton-upon-Rawcliffe: Pat Anderson, David Archer, Emma Brodrick, Billy Garrett, Angela Hemingway, and Dave Pells.

* Scagglethorpe: Elizabeth Arnott, John Brown, Paul Douthwaite, Charles Lane, Paul Prichard, Ann Smith, Mike Teasdale, and Nancy Wilson.

* Sinnington: Adrian Bishop, Susan Bryant, Roger Hudson, Elizabeth Newbronner, Leslie Scaling, Thomas Scaling, Ruth Wass.

* Welburn (York): Janet Batty, Michael Cleary, Alan Kaye, John Ryan, Judith Scott, Ian Thompson.

Elections in these parishes will be held on May 3, the same day as those for Ryedale District Council.

There is also a vacancy on Ryedale District Council where no one was nominated to replace independent councillor Joan Taylor who has stepped down after 20 years.

New nominations are to be sought for the seat and, if necessary, an election will be held on Thursday, June 21.

There will be no elections in any of the five town councils in Ryedale - Pickering, Malton, Norton, Kirkbymoorside and Helmsley.

Elections scheduled for Pickering West ward and Norton West ward have been cancelled due to the withdrawal of candidates.