The council has a statutory duty to provide a street naming and numbering (SNN) service. Over the years the use of electronic address data has increased the demand on the service and the role undertaken. The service currently provided therefore has evolved to include statutory and discretionary elements.

Through the registration and distribution of new addresses and postcodes, developers receive a service which is of clear commercial value to them. Without an address they have difficulties procuring service connections and processing property sales. Their customers, the purchasers of the properties, would in turn have difficulty accessing a range of services after they move in as their address will not appear on any database or mapping system. As a general principle there is greater acceptance of charges where a clear benefit is visible in return.

This report is looking at introducing a scheme of charges on the discretionary element of the work, it will summarise the SNN legislation, look at the reasoning and explore available options. A scheme of charges (appendix A) is proposed which will aim to recover the cost of the discretionary element of the work, thus helping to maintain service delivery.

That:

 the scheme of charges (appendix A)  for additional discretionary street naming and numbering services be introduced with effect from 1 April 2020.

1.            Do nothing and continue as we currently are. The benefit of this is that we would not need to amend or alter our processes. The disadvantages of this would be that the current workload associated with street naming and numbering will continue as a non-recoverable cost in the face of continuing budget pressures.  As work is non fee earning it will not be classed a priority service above our building control work, causing delays and user dissatisfaction.

2.            Stop undertaking the additional non-statutory work: The statutory requirement is to consult with the LLPG (Local land Property Gazetteer.) The service goes above and beyond this by circulating address with interested parties, such as all the utility services, emergency services, internal departments such as Council Tax, electoral registration for example. Not consulting with the organisations will result in the addresses not being circulated efficiently and the new home owner may incur third party cost and inconvenience. The emergency services response time could also be affected.

3.         The effect on individuals and communities from incomplete and inaccurate addressing data is likely to be undesirable and contentious. Other parts of the Council rely heavily on the address data collated by the SNN team and there may be repercussions and additional costs from finding other ways of maintaining citizen records/property databases.