New streets with 5 or less properties and where the street cannot be extended will be numbered into the primary road in which they are accessed. Experience has shown that roads with few houses are not well known and become difficult to locate.

Where a new road is an extension of an existing road, it will not be allocated a new street name and the properties will be numbered into the existing road.

Where a development includes several new roads, a theme for these roads may be used. Alternatively, the names will be taken from the Approved Road Names Register. Themes for road names for new developments will not be repeated in any one Parish/Town.

The use of a name of a living person will not be acceptable. Furthermore, the name of a street should not promote an active organisation.

Street names should not be difficult to pronounce or awkward to spell.

It is important to both the Royal Mail and the Emergency Services to avoid giving streets similar names within the same Parish/Town. The close juxtaposition of similar names such as Park Road, Park Avenue and Park Gate Drive in the same area has proved to be a particular source of difficulty. A great variety of “999” calls are received each day and some callers can be vague in the details they give. Where names are duplicated it can be extremely difficult to pinpoint an exact location to enable an ambulance to attend in the time allowed. This is in line with Government guidance found in circular 3/93 (see Appendix A).

Names that could give offence are not to be used, nor are names that could encourage defacing of nameplates. The Council reserves the right to object to any suggested name deemed to be inappropriate.

Where an existing road is dissected by the building of a new road, The Council may choose to rename either or both parts of the existing road, however consultation with the appropriate Parish/Town Council will be undertaken.

No punctuation in the use of street names will be used for example “St. Mary’s Gardens” will appear in all street naming documentation and street nameplates as “St Marys Gardens”

The following is a list of possible suffixes, it is not exhaustive and sometimes other description words are more appropriate:

• Street (for any thoroughfare)
• Road (for any thoroughfare)
• Lane (for major roads)
• Avenue (for residential roads)

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

• Walk
• Path
• Way