I've set up a search page and have 25 results per page. When there are less than 25 results, I'm still getting (unlinked) "previous" and "next" links - it obviously doesn't make much sense that they are there at all, as there are no "previous" or "next" pages. Is there any way to get them not to appear when they're not needed?
The same thing happens on my asset listing pages where I'm using the %page_list% keyword - the page list appears even when there is only one page.
There is no way to remove them if they are not linked. They remain on the page to preserve any page layout you may have. Sometimes people want them to stay, sometimes they don't 
A nifty way around this is to use the CSS display: none tag on the text, overriding it for the <A> tags. So, if its not wrapped in <A> tags, the CSS will hide it away.