THREE years after the Government first pledged to end the menace of carbon monoxide poisoning, people are still falling victim to the silent killer as the Government drags its heels.

When Health and Safety Minister Lord Whitty promised to find a solution, victims' families thought their prayers had been answered.

Since then Nick Rainsford, Alan Whitehead and - within the last few days Nick Brown - have been handed the ministerial post, but the sweeping changes to the law campaigners were hoping for have not materialised.

Lord Whitty gave the pledge to The Northern Echo when the paper took the campaign for a change in the law to Downing Street three years ago today.

The Silent Killer campaign was hailed as instrumental in prompting Government action.

Lord Whitty said: "We are determined to do something both in terms of the responsibility of landlords and in making sure the safety regulations are appropriate. What we have got in train now should get us into a much better and much sharper regulatory position in the course of the next year."

But hopes that the Government would be as good as Lord Whitty's word have come to nothing.

Only last year the need for action was reinforced by the Health and Safety Commission, which made 47 recommendations to ministers in its Gas Safety Review. The probe was supposed to reduce the number of deaths in the next ten years by 20 per cent.

Government officials said last night that the recommendations would be implemented.

But the Health and Safety Executive admitted that regulations which affect so many people, from businesses to consumers, would not happen overnight.

Sheila O'Neil, of Spennymoor, County Durham, lost her daughter Deborah, 23, to carbon monoxide poisoning three weeks after starting teaching in Turkey.

Mrs O'Neil was part of The Northern Echo delegation who travelled to Downing Street in 1999 to demand new legislation.

They were accompanied by another grieving family. Margaret Brennan's 19-year-old daughter, Anne, died while at university digs in Durham City.

Mrs O'Neil said she was disappointed nothing had happened following Lord Whitty's pledge.

The National Students Union is also calling for stricter regulations. A survey last year found that about half of students had not seen records of compulsory gas safety checks which landlords must arrange every year.

MP for Houghton and Washington East Fraser Kemp said he would be asking the Government for an update on progress.

Stephanie Trotter, of the charity CO Gas Safety, which lobbies the Government for better safety measures, said she wanted to see Transco workers carrying and using equipment to test all appliances for carbon monoxide leaks.

She said sending workers without the correct equipment was like "someone out to detect radiation without a Geiger counter"

Read more about the Silent Killer campaign here.