THOUSANDS of polling cards for Thursday's council elections will have to be reprinted because of a blunder.

Durham City Council has received scores of calls from residents worried because the cards they received have the wrong ward names.

The mistake is believed to have affected cards sent to homes in several wards, including Sherburn, Pittington and West Rainton, Deerness and Framwelgate.

Chief executive Colin Shearsmith has written a letter explaining the situation to the candidates who are contesting the 50 seats on the Labour-run council.

The council, which is blaming a mistake by a firm of printers, says people will still be able to use the cards despite the error. But correct versions are being printed and should be landing on doormats early next week.

One resident said: "They issued about 30,000 cards and the vast majority are wrong. It is incompetence. Apparently, the council has had hundreds of calls about it.''

A council spokeswoman said: "The printers have taken full responsibility.

"The cards are being re-printed and re-issued and people will have their new cards early next week.

"The printer is paying, so the cost will not fall to council taxpayers.

"Even if people used the cards with the errors on, they would still be able to vote.''

She was unable to say how many cards were affected.