Buckinghamshire Council Street Naming and Numbering Policy

7.1 The Authority will check the existing gazetteer and review every request to add or change an existing property name. Names will be considered acceptable unless they are duplicated within the local area or are likely to cause offence. Where a property has a number, it is the responsibility of the property owner to check the street the property is on to ensure the name is not already in use.

7.2 A property with a number must always use and display that number. Where a property has a name and an official number the number must always be included in the address and displayed on the property. The name cannot be regarded as an alternative. Any request to remove a number from an official address will be refused.

7.3 Once Royal Mail has processed an address change their on-line postcode service will normally reflect the change within 48 hours. However, any amendments can take several months to filter through to end users of Postcode Address File data. This will happen as external companies update their own databases with the latest Address Management Products. Therefore, any change to a property’s name could potential cause problems where companies need to use or validate an address and are working with old data.