Street Naming and Numbering Policy

Local Authorities are responsible for Street Naming and Numbering (SNN). The legislative powers that enable Neath Port Talbot Council to carry out this function are contained under section 8 of the 1987 West Glamorgan Act. The 1987 West Glamorgan Act amends sections 64 and 65 of the 1847 Town Improvements Clauses Act.

Street naming and property numbering is fundamental to the process of address creation. This policy’s primary purpose is to establish clear, unambiguous addressing within Neath Port Talbot which will benefit the residents and the Emergency service organisations.

Local Authorities throughout Wales have approached bilingual street naming (and other aspects of addressing) in a variety of ways. The practice in Neath Port Talbot has informally been to encourage new streets to have a single, Welsh form of the name, however this is not an official policy of the Council, but it would be prudent to formalise the present practice. The emphasis on the preference for Welsh street names has therefore been incorporated into the new Street Naming Protocol.

Bound with the Welsh language is the rich and unique culture, history and identity of the local area and its inhabitants. As a result, a Welsh place-name or house name usually conveys information about the nature of the location, about its history, the area’s culture, or the people who used to live there. As a Council, unless there’s an exceptional reason to change a Welsh place or house name to English, the Council will not approve the change.

Royal Mail is not responsible for address creation. Addresses are created as a direct result of the statutory SNN function carried out by all Local Authorities throughout the UK.

As part of the service, the Council will inform Royal Mail plus a number of other organisations of the new street name or property number. The Council will liaise with Royal Mail to establish new postcodes and make requests for new property addresses to be added to the Royal Mail registers.

Street Naming is a free service, however, numbering and naming of properties is a chargeable service. The Council has developed a scale of fees for carrying out Street Naming and Numbering, please refer to Section 10 for details.

The fees for undertaking SNN services cover the costs incurred for extra work that is carried out at the discretion of the Council. This includes working with Royal Mail, informing various bodies and organisations and confirming addresses in an appropriate format. Creating drawings, marking site layout plans, the preparation of numbering schedules and confirming new addresses are all covered by the charges.

All applications must be completed using the SNN Proforma document. Alternatively a copy can be requested from the Street Naming & Numbering Officer.

Completed forms can either be emailed or sent via the post.

Payment for services must be received before any applications are processed. Payment can be made via cheque, by phone (01639-686906) or via the Council’s online payment system (select Other Payments, then select Street Naming & Numbering, then select Street Naming & Numbering again).  

SNN applications must be made when new addresses are needed or when addresses of existing properties need to be modified. Applications must also be made if a new road name or names are required.  For example:

1. On large development sites where new roads and properties are constructed. This includes residential, commercial and industrial premises.
2. Where existing properties are converted and new addresses are required. This covers residential, commercial and industrial premises.
3. When Individual new property addresses are required.
4. Where properties are merged or split i.e. a single dwelling split into flats or two properties converted into one.
5. Renaming of an existing property. This only applies where a property is known by name only rather than a number. Please refer to Section 6 - points 12 and 13.
6. A request is made to rename a street. Please refer to Section 7.

Applications for new property numbering should only be made once work has commenced on site and when properties are at an advanced stage of construction. Developers are urged to apply for addresses at least three months prior to the expected build completion date or dates of a property or properties. The expected completion date or dates must be provided.

Developers of large sites are advised to stage work in phases and consider the expected flow of property numbering so that the projected numbering of properties will not become fragmented should changes to layout be made.

The Council will consider naming and numbering properties where work has not yet commenced, but only where the developer is certain that the properties will be built and where adjacent properties at the same development site have been completed or are still under construction.

Developers should be aware that charges will apply when changes to layout causes renaming or renumbering to be carried out by the Council. These charges will only apply where notification has already been issued to a developer and where previous notification(s) are affected.

Developers must inform the Street Naming and Numbering Officer at the earliest opportunity of any changes to site layouts that will affect street naming and/or numbering. Developers are also advised that a charge will be incurred for extra work entailed in connection with the required notification of Royal Mail and various other bodies of the removal of addresses should properties not be built. This however applies only in those circumstances where addresses have already been confirmed to a developer by the Council in a previous notification(s).

The following information should be included with applications to name and number new properties:

1. An appropriately scaled location plan. In the case of a new development – a layout plan, indicating the position of properties in relation to the geographical surrounding will be required.
2. A block plan or plans that identify plot numbers and the outline of all new properties. Floor plans must also be included as necessary i.e. for blocks of flats. 
3. All property numbering shown on submitted drawings will be deemed as plot numbers until such time that the Council confirms naming and numbering.
4. The expected completion date or dates of properties must be specified.

Applications will be prioritised by expected first completion dates.

Developments that require road naming will also be prioritised, in recognition of the processes to be followed and the amount of time required before new road names can be agreed upon.

The acceptability of new road names proposed by developers will be checked against the criteria set out in Section 5. If the criteria are not met then developers will be asked to submit alternative names.

Where developers have requested that the Council decides new road names, then research has to be carried out. Local Ward members or historical groups may be contacted for their views and input. The time involved could cause delay.

Once a suitable road name is identified the new road name proposal must be submitted to local ward members for approval. Provided no objection is made, following a three-week consultation period, the new road name is deemed to have been agreed.

Once a new road name has been determined, the new property numbering will be implemented following the principles described in section 6. Royal Mail will be notified of all new property numbering by the Council and will issue postcodes for those properties.

Developers, various bodies and organisations will be notified of the new addresses. Site layouts and numbering schedules are supplied as necessary.

A Local Land & Property Gazetteer (LLPG) is a database of address information that is maintained by a Local Authority. Each Local Authority has a regulatory requirement to maintain this local gazetteer.  Each LLPG feeds into a national database, the National Land & Property Gazetteer (NLPG).

All new property and address information is recorded directly into the LLPG and then the NLPG.

The Council are not required to provide postcode information when confirming new street naming and numbering. Any query that a developer or member of public has with regard to postcodes, should be made with Royal Mail by telephoning 08456 011110 or by visiting the Royal Mail

Some development sites require new roads to be created. A formal road naming procedure must be followed before any road names are made official. 

Developers are encouraged to submit road naming proposals. The criteria specified below must be met.  Alternatively, developers can request that the Council selects the new road name(s) for them. The Council’s decision will be final.

1. The new street name should reflect the history of the site or acknowledge the geography of the area. Developers and all other interested parties are encouraged to consult the County Archivist, the Community Council or other Local Historic Societies who may be able to offer guidance on these issues. 
2. Every effort should be made to avoid commonly-used street names. Even if located in different areas of the county, these can potentially offer ambiguity to delivery and emergency services, especially if postcodes are similar.
3. When submitting a new name the Street Naming & Numbering Officer will enforce new streets to have a single, Welsh form of the name.
4. Bilingual street nameplate signs are produced only when a street sign is replaced.
5. Names should be easy to pronounce and spell.
6. Names that could be considered offensive will not be accepted
7. Names must not conflict with other existing road names used within the county.
8. Street names must not contain references to a living or recently deceased person.
9. Phonetically similar names should be avoided i.e. Churchill Road and Birchill Road. Names with different suffixes are not acceptable i.e. Church Road, Church Avenue etc… within the same locality.
10. New street names should avoid the use of unnecessary punctuation as far as possible. As an example, Heol Y Waun is preferable to Heol-Y-Waun.
11. Where roads become permanently severed due to development or events then one part of the road should be renamed completely. The use of North, South, East or West (as in Heatherton Road North or Heatherton Road South) is not normally acceptable, except where the road is long and is bisected by a major junction.
12. Street names starting with ‘The’ should be avoided
13. Subsidiary road names, such as a row of buildings within an already named road being called ‘…… terrace/Parade should be avoided.
14. Where existing streets are extended then the existing road name should continue to be used wherever possible.

Sales and marketing teams should make clear to prospective purchasers that the marketing names used by developers may not become a street name and may therefore not form part of the final address of a property. Sales and marketing literature should state this.

Once new road naming on development schemes has been agreed upon, developers will be responsible for erecting street nameplates. Refer to section 8.

Logical property numbering is important to aid emergency services should assistance be required. The following numbering conventions are also generally recognised by delivery companies and are used by this Council:

1. The Council will attempt to number all new property developments. Exceptions apply where existing streets have no numbering scheme in use.
2. New streets should be numbered with even numbers on the right and odd numbers on the left, when travelling away from the centre of a town. Side roads should be numbered ascending from the most important road that they lead off.   
3. Small cul-de-sac and small scale developments will be numbered using clockwise sequential numbering. Longer cul-de-sac developments will again be numbered with odd property numbers allocated to the left and even property numbers allocated to the right.
4. All numbers should be used. Requests to omit numbers (i.e. no.13) will be refused.
5. Private garages and similar buildings should not be numbered.
6. Properties will be numbered according to the street off which the main entrance is found. This includes corner properties. Manipulation of numbering to secure prestigious addresses or to avoid undesirable addresses will not be allowed.
7. If a building has entrances in more than one street the entrance considered to be the main entrance will be used to form the basis for street naming and numbering.
8. Buildings which contain multiple premises, e.g. a block of flats, where feasible should be named and the main building numbered. Individual internal properties within it should be numbered separately.
9. The internal numbering of premises within buildings should start at the lowest point, with number 1 being the first property on the left when entering the lowest floor. Numbering should continue clockwise and upward.
10. Infill development on existing streets will include a suffix to the premise number (i.e. 21A) where no consecutive available number exists in the current numbering scheme.
11. Subdivision of residential property is always numbered rather than described or lettered, i.e. Flat 1 used rather than ‘First Floor Flat’ or ‘Flat A’
12. Properties known by name only are permissible if no street numbering scheme has been established in a street. There must be no duplication of property names in a street or in the surrounding areas at rural locations. 
13. A property numbered on a street that has an established numbering scheme cannot change to a name only. A name may be added provided that the name does not conflict with other properties in the street or with existing nearby properties at rural locations. No formal procedure is required in this case. However, the property number must always be quoted and used during all correspondence.

It may be necessary on rare occasions to name/rename and/or number/renumber streets. Or, it may become necessary to number/renumber individual premises situated within a building. The situations where this can occur are where:

1. A Street has no known name.
2. Confusion has arisen as to the correct name to be used for a street
3. A mixture of both named and numbered properties in a street requires formal numbering to be introduced in order to regularise addresses.
4. Infill properties have caused street naming and/or numbering to become fragmented and illogical
5. Property numbering within a building is illogical and is causing confusion.

Residents make a request to rename a street. Fees will apply if renaming takes place.

Where a street has no name, the Council will seek to name the street using the provision of the 1847 Town Improvements Clauses Act, Section 64 - Houses to be numbered and streets named as amended by section 8 of the 1987 West Glamorgan Act.

Residents, occupiers and property owners will be informed and consulted if any renaming and/or renumbering is to take place.

At least a two thirds majority of resident and property owner consent will be required before any renaming proposals are considered. The Council’s decision will be final.

House and Place Name changes from Welsh to English - The Council only approves changes to Historic Welsh place names or houses in exceptional circumstances.

Property owners and residents will be informed in writing of any changes that are made. The Council will inform Royal Mail, emergency services and various bodies and organisations of any changes that take place.

Specification for nameplates can be obtained from the Council by contacting the Street Naming & Numbering Officer.

Street nameplates must be erected by developers before properties are occupied.

Details of locations and specifications for street nameplates will be conveyed to developers when street naming and numbering notifications are issued by the Council.

If a developer fails to erect nameplates and properties become occupied then the Council will erect nameplates. Developers will be charged for all costs incurred. 

Should a homeowner or developer wish to appeal against a decision of the Street Naming & Numbering Officer, please submit your appeal in writing within 10 working days of the decision either to environment@npt.gov.uk or SNN Appeals, Environment Directorate, The Quays, Brunel Way, Neath. SA11 2GG.

Fees and charges (prices correct as of April 2024)

For further advice or information please contact the Street Naming and Numbering Officer