What happens if a street needs renaming or renumbering?
On rare occasions it may become necessary to consider renaming or renumbering a street. This is only carried out in exceptional circumstances when: • there is demonstrable confusion over a street’s name and/or house naming/numbering which would give concern in the event of an emergency • a majority of residents/occupiers are unhappy with their street name • new properties are built in a street and there is a need for other properties to be renumbered to accommodate the new properties. To promote a change of street/block name or numbering we would ballot the affected local residents/occupiers on the issue. Hopefully there would be unanimous support, but we require at least a two-thirds majority to make a change. If that majority is achieved, we will commence the statutory 28 day consultation phase. During this phase, we will post public notices on the street and directly consult the emergency services and Royal Mail. If there are no material objections to the naming proposals we will fo
Renaming or Renumbering an existing street is to be avoided unless the benefits clearly outweigh the obvious disadvantages. Existing residents will always be consulted, and, to change a street name, we will require 100% support from local residents. This is to reflect the disruption caused to individuals, who will have to change their personal address details. For more information, please see our SNN Policy & Guidelines.
