Naming and numbering conventions

The naming and numbering of streets and buildings within Bury is a statutory function of Bury Council in accordance with:

We're responsible for maintaining Bury related information in the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG), which is done by maintaining a Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG).

The LLPG and NLPG are kept updated with all newly authorised street names, building names and numbering. We advise Royal Mail of all address change intelligence via the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) Hub. Royal Mail then provide postcode and postal town information, via the NLPG Hub.

We're not responsible for the assignation of postcodes to addresses, this is done by Royal Mail. You can use the Royal Mail website to find a postcode.

Street naming conventions

Property developers or occupiers may propose names for consideration, but we recommend suggesting more than one new name and that the proposed names meet the required criteria.

Our Highways department provide the specification for street name plates, but it is the developer's responsibility to provide and attach the name plates.

Street naming criteria

Street names cannot:

be duplicated within the same town or within close proximity to a duplicate street in a neighbouring town
be longer than 100 characters long
contain punctuation or abbreviations, apart from 'St.' to represent 'Saint'
be difficult to pronounce or be awkward to spell
be a name of a living person
begin with the word 'The'
use tree or bird names, as this will cause duplication of existing streets named within the borough
be of a nature that could be construed as advertising
be of a nature that could be considered offensive
use subsidiary names
carry the same name as a building

All new street names should end with one of the following suffixes:

For residential roads:
- Avenue
- Drive
- Gardens; subject to there being no confusion with local open space
- Grove
- Hill
- Lane
- Mews
- Place
- Rise
- Row
- Vale
- Wharf
For any thoroughfare:
- Road
- Street
For cul-de-sac:
- Close
- Court
For other road or area types:
- Circus; for roundabouts only
- Crescent; for crescent shaped roads only
- Square; for squares only
- Terrace; for terraced housing, but not as a subsidiary name within another road
- Walk; for pedestrian walkways only
- Way; for major roads

Street names should reflect the history or geography of the site or area, where possible. Historic street naming and numbering practices have often resulted in many streets in close proximity being assigned the same name, but with a differing suffix such as 'Birch Road' and 'Birch Avenue'. Within reason, new developments following this tradition may be considered but will be discouraged.

Building numbering and naming conventions

The use of a name which relates to people, whether living or deceased, will be discouraged. Only in exceptional circumstances will such requests be given consideration.

Private garages and similar buildings used for housing vehicles, should not be numbered.

All new building names should end with one of the following suffixes:

Lodge
Apartments
Mansions
House
Court; residential only
Point; high block residential only
Tower; high block offices or residential
Heights; high block offices or residential.

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 in the area.

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. This is enforceable under section 65 of the Town Improvement Clauses Act 1847. The name cannot be regarded as an alternative.

Number sequencing

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.

All numbers should be used in the proper sequence. Bury has for a number years, and will continue to exclude number 13 from the numbering sequence.

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.

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.

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 for a house divided into flats, depending on circumstances.

Numbering of flats

In residential buildings, such as a block of flats, it's usual to give a street number to each dwelling where the block is up to six stories 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.

Numbering with letters

Legislation allows the use of numbers followed by letters. These will be suitable, for example, when one large house in a road is demolished and is to be replaced by four new smaller houses, for example.

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 we would be unwilling to do. Instead, the new houses should be given the number of the old house with A, B, C or D added after the number, such as; 21A, 21B, 21C and 21D.

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

Renaming and renumbering

On rare occasions, it may be necessary to rename or renumber a street. This is usually only done as a last resort.

Residents of the affected street will be consulted and their views will be taken into account. We will also consult the Royal Mail. Local residents may also be balloted on the issue.

After the decision has been made and the applicant informed, a letter explaining the decision will be sent to all residents affected by the proposal.