The efforts of stout anti-metric campaigners paid off yesterday, when the EU announced it would no longer force the UK to abandon the imperial system.

EU industry commissioner Gunter Verheugen said it was a “pointless battle” that would only affect the “British tradition, culture and lifestyle”.

The news follows years of disputes between Westminster and Brussels, during which four people were prosecuted for breaching the Weights and Measures Act of 1985.

The period of grace before the UK was to be forced to go completely metric was set to end in 2010.

Pressure group Metric Martyrs welcomed the EU’s decision, but called for the government to make its own position clear. It added it would also continue the fight, as reported on freshinfo yesterday, for greengrocer Steve Thoburn to be given a posthumous pardon following his 2001 conviction for selling fruit by the pound.

“His conviction sits like a festering sore on the backside of British justice,” said campaign director Neil Herron.

The imperial system was set up in 1824, combining Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and other units used since the Middle Ages.