FOUR homes are to have their street name and house numbers changed for their own ‘convenience’ and ‘safety’.

The houses on Larch Drive in Didcot are set to be renamed to Birch Close because a new bus-only lane has caused complications for delivery drivers and safety problems.

Homes south of the 'bus gate' have had their drives blocked by delivery vehicles while deliveries are completed on foot to addresses on the north side of the bus gate.

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On Friday, December 4, South Oxfordshire District Council discussed the street name change, and the proposal for the four houses to become Birch Close was approved by the 'street naming panel'.

The district council is responsible for creating the first two lines of all addresses and Royal Mail is responsible for adding the locality, post town and post code.

Each street may have one or many post codes associated with it, but a post code can only apply to one street.

Post codes are used in satellite navigation devices, which guide drivers to their destination following a route that takes account of one-way streets and non-passable obstructions such as bus gates.

In the council's written proposal it explained why delivery drivers are blocking driveways. It said: “It’s a 2.24-mile journey from one side of the bus gate to the other, therefore delivery drivers will be reluctant to make that journey if they can complete their delivery on foot.”

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The bus gate was approved in July 2020, to stop cars and encourage cycling, walking, and riding the bus in Didcot.

Temporary barriers were placed where Larch Drive meets Diamond Drive in Didcot with the hope of removing the potential for ‘rat-running’ traffic.

After the barriers for the bus gate were put in place and numbers 46 to 54 Larch Drive had been changed to numbers one-to-nine Birch Close, which consequently created a division between Diamond Drive and Larch Drive, a second consultation to rename four addresses on Larch Drive went ahead.

Resident MacDonald Bradley objected to the change, but the three other occupiers on the road were all in agreement with the change of name to Birch Close.

Mr Bradley’s home will be positioned north of the bus gate and he argued that it was ‘illogical’ to rename the four houses.

He said at to the street naming committee: “It is never going to be a close, the pavement crosses the close and two houses are on the other side of the bus gate. All we have to do is change the post code.”

However, the committee said it was Royal Mail’s job to change the post code and the change in street name was approved.