Street Naming and Numbering Policy

Procedure on receipt of suggested street name

Property developers can suggest names for new streets. These will be received by the respective Council and checked against the criteria (see later), then forwarded to the Town/Parish Council and the local Ward Member as appropriate for consideration. The Town/Parish Council will consider the name and may approve, otherwise they may suggest another name. If another name is suggested by the Town/Parish Council then the Council will forward this suggestion to the developer for consideration. Once both parties are in agreement the Council will officially allocate the street name.

In cases where both parties cannot agree on a street name, the decision will be made under delegated authority by the COP lead for Development Management.

In cases where a street name has been put forward by a property developer all costs for the erection of street nameplates will be borne by the property developer. There are Street Nameplate Specifications and Installation Guidelines available and the Council will inform the developer of this.

Maintenance of street nameplates becomes the Council's responsibility once a street has been adopted.

As stated above, under Section 17 Public Health Act 1925, it is not lawful to erect a street nameplate until the street name has been confirmed in writing by the Council.

Criteria for Naming Streets

The Street Naming and Numbering (SNN) Case Manager will use these guidelines when agreeing a new number or address and Developers and Town/Parish Councils should follow these guidelines for any suggested street names:

  • New street names should try to avoid duplicating any similar name already in use in a town/village or in the same postcode area. A variation in the terminal words, for example, 'street', 'road', 'avenue' will not be accepted as sufficient reason to duplicate a name. A common request is to repeat existing names in a new road or building titles. This is not allowed as it can have a detrimental effect in an emergency.
  • Street names should, where possible, reflect the history or geography of the site or area.
  • Street names should not be difficult to pronounce or awkward to spell.
  • Street names must not cause offence and will be verified by the Street Naming and Numbering Case Manager to ensure that they do not do so, having particular regard to race, disability, gender, age, faith and belief and sexual orientation.
  • Street names that could be construed as advertising will not be allowed.
  • The use of North, East, South or West is only acceptable where the road is continuous and passes over a major junction. It is not acceptable when the road is in two separate parts with no vehicular access between the two.
  • Phonetically similar names within a postal area should be avoided
  • The use of a name that relates to a living or deceased person should be avoided.

All new street names should ideally end with one of the following suffixes;

  • Street,
  • Road,
  • Avenue,
  • Drive,
  • Way,
  • Grove,
  • Lane,
  • Gardens,
  • Place,
  • Crescent,
  • Court,
  • Close,
  • Square,
  • Hill,
  • Circus,
  • Vale,
  • Rise,
  • Row,
  • Wharf,
  • Mews

All new pedestrian ways should ideally end with one of the following suffixes:

  • Walk,
  • Path,
  • Way.

Further notes:

For private houses it is sufficient that the name should not repeat the name of the road or that of any house or building in the same postcode area, see Procedure for Address Changes.