The Electoral Commission has recommended that future local council elections should be run as all postal ballots.

The radical suggestion was set out in a report on the alternative voting methods trialled during May's council elections in England.

Ministers were warned that there is a widespread public perception that the traditional form of voting - marking an "X" on a ballot paper in a polling station - is now "irrelevant and effectively redundant".

Deputy prime minister John Prescott's office said that it would consider the commission's recommendations over the next week, but officials said that ministers were keen to "keep up the momentum" of the success of the May trials.