Street Naming and Numbering Policy

Dorset Council is responsible for the naming of streets and numbering of properties within its area.

The aim of this policy is to ensure that any new street names, building names and numbers are allocated logically and consistently as this enables:

• emergency services to find a property quickly and effectively
• post to be delivered efficiently
• visitors to locate their destination
• statutory undertakers to connect their services to premises and link them to a postal address for billing
• reliable delivery of services and goods by courier companies
• records of service providers to be kept in an efficient manner
• companies to accept an address for official purposes. For example, insurance, credit rating and contract acceptance

Many legal transactions associated with properties can be withheld until they are identified by a street name and number.

This applies to all residential, commercial, and industrial properties. Street Naming and Numbering is an important function of Dorset Council as it allows us to maintain a comprehensive, unambiguous and accurate list of addresses covering all properties in the Dorset Council area.

The policy provides a framework for Dorset Council to operate its street naming and numbering function effectively and efficiently for the benefit of Dorset Council residents, businesses, and visitors.

It will also act as a guide to developers when considering new names for streets and give assistance to parish and town councils when carrying out the engagement process with regard to street names.

Royal Mail does not have any authority to issue or confirm official addresses but it is responsible for setting the post town and postcode for a property.

An official address will be based on the geographical position of the property.

Dorset Council is a signatory to the Public Sector Geospatial Agreement (PSGA) which is a contractual framework that regulates the use of mapping and address data in local authorities.

Through the PSGA authorities are contracted to maintain a Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) and to ensure the quality of the address information it contains.

The authority is contracted under a data licence contained within the Data Co-operation Agreement (DCA) to create, maintain and deliver Authority Address Updates to the National Address Gazetteer (NAG) through the LLPG.

This address information is electronically transferred to the NAG in an agreed format for use by Government, the emergency services and Ordnance Survey AddressBase Products.

Address information that does not conform to the agreed format will be rejected by the NAG and will not be eligible for postcoding.

The structure of the address data to form a compliant address is set out in British Standard BS7666.

Dorset Council’s LLPG is the single master source of correct address data for the Dorset Council area.

The purpose of the LLPG and NAG is to ensure that all properties can be identified by one correct address and not by multiple addresses which can occur when there are multiple data sources.

This ensures that accurate and consistent geospatial based information is used and shared within and between public bodies throughout England and Wales. Dorset Council’s LLPG is the definitive addressing resource for use through all services and for the key revenue raising activities associated with Council Tax and Business Rates (NNDR) income.

In addition to the traditional method of addressing a property the government has introduced a British Standard (BS7666) for the precise identification of a property or plot of land.

This is a standard format for the structure of an address. Each address has a 12-digit unique property reference number (UPRN). This UPRN permits additional information such as geographical coordinates to be accessed, allowing the property to be precisely located on a map and contains information relating to the full life cycle of a property including its provisional, historic and alternate addresses and whether it is residential or commercial.

Every address contains a twelve-figure grid reference which makes it possible to locate it quickly on the computerised Ordnance Survey maps. This information supports the emergency services and service providers.

It is also making possible an entire range of locational services available through emerging technology.

Dorset Council has a variety of powers that it can use for the purposes of delivering the functions and performing the services to which this policy relates.

Dorset Council has adopted:

• Towns Improvement Clauses Act 1847 together with the Public Health Act 1875 (together referred to as the 'the First Scheme')
• s21 Public Health Acts Amendment Act 1907
• s17 and s19 Public Health Act 1925

Please note that if an application for an address is not received, the property will not be exempt from paying Council Tax or Business Rates. Conversely, the payment of Council Tax or Business Rates does not make an address official.

Other forms of an address may exist (such as those on title deeds or held by third party databases) but have no legal standing.

Permissions required under the Planning Acts and Building Regulations approval, or other statutory permissions may be required, and you are advised to check the position with the appropriate officers before works commence.

The official addressing of the property does not mean that these permissions or approvals have been given.

If a new street name is required, before applying to Dorset Council, an applicant should seek to engage with the town or parish council in which the street is located to agree street names that are considered appropriate.

If no agreement can be reached, Dorset Council will make the final decision.

Dorset Council will not support or approve any street name that:

• is the same or similar to one already in use in the same locality/town or is in close proximity to one with the same name but different suffix for example Birch Road and Birch Avenue
• include a number that could cause confusion e.g., 30 Two Foot Lane sounds like 32 Foot Lane
• could cause offence or be considered discriminatory particularly in regard to age, disability, race and ethnicity, faith and belief, sexual orientation, gender and sex
• would undermine the cohesiveness of local communities
• could cause spelling or pronunciation problems
• contains apostrophes or other punctuation
• uses a name with Royal connotations without consent of the Lord Chamberlain's office
• advertise a product or business

Living people will not have streets named after them to avoid causing offence either by inclusion or exclusion.

Street names referring to deceased people will be acceptable in some circumstances.

Consideration would be given to the likelihood that the public perception of a deceased person may change considerably – for better or worse – in the future.

Only surnames will be used (not forename and surname combined). Where the name proposed commemorates a person who has direct living descendants, permission must be sought, and evidence must be provided with the application.

Unofficial marketing titles used by developers will not be acceptable. 

Where a street name ends with a suffix the following should be used:

• street (for any thoroughfare)
• road (for any thoroughfare)
• way (for major road or thoroughfare)
• avenue (for residential roads)
• drive (for residential roads)
• grove (for residential roads)
• lane (for residential roads)
• gardens (for residential roads) subject to there being no confusion with any local open space
• place (for a square of an area surrounded by buildings)
• crescent (for a crescent shaped road)
• court/close (for a cul-de-sac only)
• square (for a square only)
• hill (for a hillside road only)
• vale (for residential roads)
• rise (for residential roads)
• row (for residential roads)
• mews (for residential roads)
• terrace (row of properties)

Dorset Council is likely to oppose or is unlikely to approve any pedestrian route not named:

• walk
• alley
• path
• way

The street naming and numbering process will not be started until full planning consent, as appropriate, has been obtained - in any event a Street Naming and Numbering application should be made at least 3 months prior to the estimated completion date.

After approval of an application, Dorset Council will look to confirm details with the applicant. Upon receipt of such confirmation, arrangements should be put in place to ensure that the name of an approved street is clearly displayed in a conspicuous location at or near each end, corner or entrance to a street.

View the EQIA 

This policy was last reviewed in 2022.

The next expected review date is 2024.