THERE will be no shortage of choice for voters in the Malvern Hills district when they go to the polls on Thursday, May 7, for the biggest election in the council's history.

A total of 94 candidates are seeking election to the district council this time around, up from the 74 who fought for seats at the last poll in 2011.

There has also been an increase in the number of contested wards this time around, with competing candidates in 20 of the 22 wards, compared to only 16 last time.

There has been no shortage of controversy in and around Malvern Hills District Council in the four years since the last election.

One of the most divisive issues has been the way that the council has handled the issue of the South Worcestershire Development Plan, and its associated five-year housing list.

Critics charge that the failure of the council to ratify the plan has opened the door to opportunist developers who are pushing housing schemes that might have had a much smaller chance of success in other circumstances.

And residents of Powick, Upton, Leigh Sinton, Malvern Wells and Welland, not to mention areas inside Malvern such as Lower Howsell Road and around Hayslan Fields, have been fighting hard against what they see as unjustified developments, and that experience will surely affect the way they approach the polling station.

One of the biggest changes at MHDC was the adoption last year of a joint chief executive with neighbouring Wychavon District Council.

Again, the move was controversial, and candidates for the council, plus numerous electors, will surely have strong views on whether, or how, the integration between the two councils should be taken further.

The merger of the chief executive posts was only one symptom of a larger issue: the decreasing financial support that the council gets from central government.

This has led to a sustained regime of belt-tightening and arrangements of shared services with other authorities, and although the future of local authority finance will probably be affected by the outcome of the general election, it is unlikely, at least in the short term, that money will start to flow more generously.

The two uncontested seats of Baldwin and Lindridge have gone to the Conservatives, and across the rest of the district, the Tories are fielding 35 candidates, independents 14, most affiliated into one group, the Lib Dems 13, the Greens 12, and Labour and UKIP nine each.