If a new street name is required, before applying to Dorset Council, an applicant should seek to engage with the town or parish council in which the street is located to agree street names that are considered appropriate.
If no agreement can be reached, Dorset Council will make the final decision.
Dorset Council will not support or approve any street name that:
- is the same or similar to one already in use in the same locality/town or is in close proximity to one with the same name but different suffix for example Birch Road and Birch Avenue
- include a number that could cause confusion e.g., 30 Two Foot Lane sounds like 32 Foot Lane
- could cause offence or be considered discriminatory particularly in regard to age, disability, race and ethnicity, faith and belief, sexual orientation, gender and sex
- would undermine the cohesiveness of local communities
- could cause spelling or pronunciation problems
- contains apostrophes or other punctuation
- uses a name with Royal connotations without consent of the Lord Chamberlain's office
- advertise a product or business
Living people will not have streets named after them to avoid causing offence either by inclusion or exclusion.
Street names referring to deceased people will be acceptable in some circumstances.
Consideration would be given to the likelihood that the public perception of a deceased person may change considerably – for better or worse – in the future.
Only surnames will be used (not forename and surname combined). Where the name proposed commemorates a person who has direct living descendants, permission must be sought, and evidence must be provided with the application.
Unofficial marketing titles used by developers will not be acceptable.
Where a street name ends with a suffix the following should be used:
- street (for any thoroughfare)
- road (for any thoroughfare)
- way (for major road or thoroughfare)
- avenue (for residential roads)
- drive (for residential roads)
- grove (for residential roads)
- lane (for residential roads)
- gardens (for residential roads) subject to there being no confusion with any local open space
- place (for a square of an area surrounded by buildings)
- crescent (for a crescent shaped road)
- court/close (for a cul-de-sac only)
- square (for a square only)
- hill (for a hillside road only)
- vale (for residential roads)
- rise (for residential roads)
- row (for residential roads)
- mews (for residential roads)
- terrace (row of properties)
Dorset Council is likely to oppose or is unlikely to approve any pedestrian route not named:
The street naming and numbering process will not be started until full planning consent, as appropriate, has been obtained - in any event a Street Naming and Numbering application should be made at least 3 months prior to the estimated completion date.
After approval of an application, Dorset Council will look to confirm details with the applicant. Upon receipt of such confirmation, arrangements should be put in place to ensure that the name of an approved street is clearly displayed in a conspicuous location at or near each end, corner or entrance to a street.