Voters in Crawley are to take part in a pilot project to boost turnout in this year's borough council elections.

The council is one of only 30 across England to have been chosen to take part in the trial.

It will involve people in four council wards voting only by post.

Ministers and local authority officials hope the prospect of voting from home, rather than having to travel to a polling booth, will improve turnout.

They were shocked by the poor 55 per cent turnout in Crawley at last year's General Election, when Labour's Laura Moffatt retained her seat.

The figure was even worse than the national average of 59 per cent.

Local Government Minister Nick Raynsford said the Crawley pilot would help to "modernise" voting arrangements for future elections.

He is examining methods of revolutionising the General Election system some time after 2006.

Mr Raynsford added: "The 2001 General Election saw a record number of postal votes cast nationally. It has shown it can make a difference.

"The pilot programme aims, therefore, to build upon these successes and explore all-postal ballots and other techniques to make the voting process simpler, accessible and more efficient for the electorate."

Other pilot projects announced by Mr Raynsford include voting by mobile phone text message or the internet.