THOUSANDS of North-East householders will continue to be the target of junk mail, despite a landmark legal ruling.

The selling of electoral register details by local councils to junk mail companies was challenged successfully in the High Court, last year.

However, hopes that it would stop such companies from gaining access to registers of names and addresses look set to be dashed.

The Northern Echo understands there will be no retrospective element in Government legislation being drafted in the light of the legal challenge.

This means that junk mailers will continue to be able to buy old electoral registers.

The Electoral Commission, which oversees election arrangements, has also admitted that it would be impractical to wipe clear past registers containing voters' names and addresses.

It has issued interim advice to every local council in the country telling them to stop selling registers until further notice.

Mark Littlewood, of campaign group Liberty, said that voters' details varied little from one year to the next and could still be used in a manner for which it was not intended.

He said: "The reason these details are on a register is so that people can vote and not so they can be sold a washing machine."

Trading standards chiefs said the electoral register was the major source of information for junk mail companies.

In some instances, the register was being used to target elderly people with prize and lottery draw offers they could not afford.

Len Swift, principal trading standards officer with North Yorkshire County Council, said: "We receive hundreds of complaints about junk mail each year and are particularly concerned about its impact on vulnerable members of the community."