The Post Office has removed hundreds of homes from the postcode database in the last year.

It is believed that Royal Mail removed the properties, many of them holiday homes in the Highlands, as the addresses had only received junk mail for a long period of time.

Highland Council has raised concerns that the error would cause future problems in the remote locations affected.

Public agencies use postcodes in the provision of services, including emergency services and it is often the first piece of information required by insurance, finance and telecoms companies.

The local authority said it often used holiday homes for short-term social housing and as accommodation for key workers who come into a community for a short period of time, all of whom would be affected by the omission.

Councillor Ian Ross, chairman of the council's planning environment and development committee, told the Herald: "Any of these people could have been prevented from gaining access to important services, whether it be insuring a car, ordering a delivery or raising a mortgage, because the postal database is used by others.

"We were also deeply concerned that with so many holiday homes in some communities we might end up with the postcode disappearing altogether."

The number of postal addresses on the island of Raasay dropped from 164 to 102 last year.

At the north end of the island, crofter Calum MacLeod built a two-mile road, Calum's Road, which started the year with seven addresses but ended with only one.

Lochcarron in Wester Ross lost 41 postal addresses last year, Applecross went from 32 to 24 and the nearby town of Milton lost six of its 17 addresses.

Councillors were due to confront the Royal Mail with the problem when a spokeswoman for the company said the removal of addresses was due to a "local error" and they would be restored. An assurance was also given that holiday homes would no longer be removed from its database.

A spokeswoman for Royal Mail said: "The only addresses removed by Royal Mail are those which no longer exist or which are no longer physically accessible or are obviously completely unoccupied and abandoned."