Local authorities have a range of statutory responsibilities (which vary according to the type of authority) connected to the creation, maintenance and availability of address and street information.
Recognising local government as the primary source of new
address and street information and Ordnance Survey's public task, the Local
Government Association and Ordnance Survey established GeoPlace as a joint
venture to create definitive national databases of addresses and streets.
GeoPlace achieves this by collecting address and street information from local
authorities and using this to create national databases.
GeoPlace provides technical guidance to local authorities on the collection of
street and address information.
The basis for providing this guidance is to enable local authorities across
England and Wales to use the same technical reference document to produce a
consistent national dataset which is provided, through Ordnance Survey, across
the public sector and into commercial markets.
Local authorities will have their own policy for the naming of streets and the
numbering of properties.
GeoPlace does not advise on whether councils include or remove punctuation in
official naming or on the street name plate. Street naming and numbering is a
council policy decision.
The Data Entry Conventions documentations states that “Street names, towns and
localities must include all the punctuation that is in the official version of
their name".
Further guidance on the wider use of punctuation can be found in the SNN Codes of Practice.
[Guidance updated 10th May 2024]
