A council letter sent to residents to encourage them to check their eligibility to vote directed them instead to a hardcore porn website.

Mid Suffolk District Council sent approximately 80 reminder letters to residents in the Claydon and Barham wards, which included a link to pornographic content.

The error was discovered when one resident, who wished to remain anonymous, typed the address into his web browser.

“Quite humorous from my perspective but might give some of your older listeners a bit of a shock,” he told BBC Radio Suffolk.

“I have informed them but I'm guessing a few have already been mailed out.”

The council has since apologised, calling the mistake “embarrassing” and a result of a “technical slip”.

“It was not our intention to embarrass anybody in the district and the first thing I would like to say is to apologise to anybody who has received this letter,” said the council's senior director Mike Evans.

“We think about 80 documents were hand-delivered by canvassers in the wards of Claydon and Barham.”

He also said the council would be hand-delivering apology letters to affected residents over the weekend.

“Sending out this web address was absolutely not our intent and we apologise unreservedly to anyone who received it,” he added.

Mr Evans said an error in the software that personalises council letters led to "this unacceptable mistake".