Street naming and numbering guidance

When naming / numbering a new building, the following conventions should be considered:

6.1       A new street should be numbered with the odd numbers on the left and the even numbers on the right from the entrance of the street, except in the case of a cul-de-sac, where consecutive numbering in a clockwise direction is preferred.

6.2       Private garages and similar buildings used for housing cars, etc, should not be numbered.

6.3       All numbers should be used in the proper sequence (including 13). However, should a request be made by the developers, the exclusion of 13 may be allowed, after consultation with the relevant persons.

6.4       Where an existing street or similar is to be extended, it would be appropriate to continue to use the same street name. This would include the continuation of the street numbering.

6.5       Buildings (including those on corner plots) will be numbered according to the street in which the main entrance is to be found. The manipulation of numbering in order to secure a prestigious address, or to avoid an address with undesirable associations, will not be authorised.

6.6       If a building has entrances in more than one street, is a multi-occupied building and each entrance leads to a separate occupier, then each entrance should be numbered in the appropriate road. Exceptions may be made, depending on circumstances, for a house divided into flats. Sub divisions must be numbered and pre-fixed with 'flat' or 'apartment' at the current postal address.

6.7       In residential buildings (i.e. a block of flats), it is usual to give a street number to each dwelling where the block is up to six storeys in height. When the block exceeds this height or there are not sufficient numbers available because of existing development, it should be given a name and numbered separately internally.

6.8       Legislation permits the use of numbers followed by letters or fractions. These will be suitable, for example, when one large house in a road is demolished, to be replaced by (say) 4 new smaller houses. To include the new houses in the existing numbered sequence of the road would involve renumbering all the higher numbered houses on the side of the road affected by the proposal. This is something that the Council would not consider (see Section 7). To avoid this situation, the new houses should be given the number of the old house with A, B, C or D added (i.e. 21A, 21B, 21C, 21D). Fractions are only used where it is not possible to use letters.

6.9      The use of letters will not be sanctioned if the new development were to lie prior to the numbering scheme commencing. For example, if 4 houses were built prior to the first property number 2, the new dwellings would not become 2A, 2B, 2Cand 2D, but four individual property names would be requested.

6.10    For private houses in existing unnumbered roads, it is essential that the houses be officially allocated names. The name should not repeat the name of the road, or that of any house or building on the area.

6.11    Where a property has a number, it must be used and displayed. Where a name has been chosen to a property with a number, the number must always be included. The name cannot be regarded as an alternative.