The final seat on the new town council is set to be decided after an election review tomorrow (Wednesday).

Red-faced council bosses had to apply to the county court to reopen ballot boxes after it was revealed that some voters were given the wrong voting papers during the May 7 election.

Candidates for the affected South ward election and their agents have been invited to attend Macclesfield Town Hall tomorrow at 2pm to oversee the analysis.

The two seats on Macclesfield Town Council were won Labour candidate Neil Puttick and Conservative candidate Chris Andrew.

But with only 156 votes between four candidates – which also included Labour’s Fiona Wilson, and Tory Brad Snelling – a different election result is a possibility.

The probe is due to take place the day before the new town council meets for the first time.

It is understood around 240 voters from Gawsworth were given ballot slips at the Ivy Bank Primary School polling station allowing them to vote in the new town council election.

Mike Suarez, chief executive of Cheshire East Council and returning officer for the borough and parish elections, said: “We now have the necessary authority from the County Court to open the sealed election packets in order to identify any ballot papers which ought not to have been issued for the Macclesfield South ward parish council election.

“The ballot papers will be inspected at Macclesfield tomorrow afternoon. Candidates may attend, but not the public.

“Once this has been done, we shall assess whether the result of the election would have been any different had the error not occurred.

“This is a fact-finding exercise and not a formal recount or re-run of the count held on May 9.”