SNN Officers should research any proposals for property numbering and naming to ensure that they meet all the criteria in the adopted SNN Policy and that they meet the standard numbering and naming conventions detailed later in this section.
In Wales, SNN Officers should also consider whether monolingual or bilingual names for each name should be used. Care should be taken to ensure that changing or amending of a property name (including translation), meets their SNN Policy, preserves historical connotations of an existing name and that the translation of a name does not conflict with similar names in each language in at least 2 post town areas.
For a property name change the SNN officer should seek confirmation from the applicant that they have the Authority to apply to change the property details.
When considering a new property number or name, it is important to consider the following:
- For names when combined with the street name, it is not similar to, duplicate or phonetically sound similar to an existing property in the local authority area or within at least two postcode areas.
- That it does not cause spelling or pronunciation problems.
- That the proposed name meets any criteria set locally for the use of names of any living or deceased people (see Governance Section of this Code).
- That any historic connotations to people, places or events are researched and are accurate.
- That consent must be sought for the use of a name with Royal connotations (see Consultation Section of this Code).
- That the use of names and their combination with numbers should not be considered rude, obscene, and racist or which would contravene any aspect of the council’s equal opportunities policies should not be used.
- That the use of names and their combinations with numbers which can easily be changed into any of the above, for example “Canal House” should not be used.
- Proposed names cannot be construed to be used for advertising or commercial gain for example named after the developer’s company name.
- That the proposed name meets the standard property numbering and naming conventions.
For more details on considerations for property names see: