Plans Unveiled to Name West Berkshire's Roads

West Berkshire Council will meet on Tuesday, 6 October to agree a process for naming around 100 rural roads or parts of roads currently listed as unnamed in the National Street Gazetteer.

They are mostly in rural areas with only one or two homes and, the council says, can cause confusion for residents, visitors, delivery drivers and sometimes emergency services.

"In a previous career I worked on the National Street Gazetteer," said Tony Vickers (Lib Dem, Hungerford and Kintbury), who sits on the Highways Improvement Group at the council.

"There are many roads in our area - mainly ancient minor ones - that either are named 'UNNAMED ROAD' or have been assigned a different name to that which most local residents use."

"The matter was covered by legislation almost as ancient as the roads themselves and it was extremely bureaucratic for highway authorities and local councils to effect any name change."

"It required a two-thirds majority in a referendum involving every riparian owner of land adjacent to the road."

"Under the Levelling Up & Regeneration Act 2023 these ancient laws concerning road name changing were scrapped."

"The present Government has decided not to issue new regulations or even guidance to local authorities."

"However, it does require highway authorities to act (ie to change a road name) only 'where there is necessary support' for change.

"It is up to this council to decide what that means."

Councillors from rural areas have suggested parish and town councils could help identify roads that already have a locally recognised name or where a name would solve practical problems. The council is looking at a bottom-up, locally evidenced approach rather than a district-wide review.

Street naming and renaming is a statutory function for the district council. The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 requires sufficient local support before a name can be changed, but offers no national guidance, so each authority must set a lawful, fair and proportionate local process.

Officers say enquiries about changing or introducing road names are rare, typically only once or twice a year, suggesting this matters locally but is not currently widespread.

There are strict limits on what names can be used. Living people are forbidden.

Most councils require someone to have been dead for at least 50 years (sometimes up to 100) and to have made a significant contribution; written consent from the estate is usually needed.

Names cannot duplicate an existing street name within the same postcode area or town and must be easy to spell and pronounce; councils advise against words over three syllables or long multi-word phrases.

Punctuation such as apostrophes, hyphens and numbers is banned. Streets cannot promote companies or products, and names likely to lower an areas character or invite vandalism are rejected.

Any name using the word 'Royal' or referring directly to the Royal Family or royal residences needs official written clearance from the Lord Chamberlain's Office.

Niki Hinman, Local Democracy Reporter