House not accessed from named street and no sign

vanhelgan

Not sure if this is the right place but couldn't really see a better fit for advice.

We have lived in our house for almost 3 years now and have had constant problems with people being able to find us. Not a problem when we can give clear directions, but affects many deliveries, including (especially) parcels sent via Royal Mail which have taken months to get to us on occasion.

The problem is that our house cannot be accessed from the street it is officially on/part of (street A). In 2003 a new housing development was built behind our house and our access was moved to be from the new development (street . It was also screened from view largely from the street by the planting of a laurel hedge (it is at a lower level anyway).

My feeling is that the sign for Street B should read "Street B and no. x Street A" or something similar. I called the council today but was told that Street B is unadopted and that when the developer moved the access in 2003 they should have ensured signage. Is it too late for us to do anything about this? Because of differing ground levels I cannot see how any sign placed on our land would be visible from the road without being ridiculously proportioned. Any ideas?

G_M

Can you not attach a sign to the far side of the laurel bush ie visible from street A? Is the laurel yours/on your ground?

vanhelgan

The laurel is ours but grows out to border the pavement on Street A. Not really sure if we could attach a sign without it being on council land but will go and have a good look to see if that could work. Any ideas if that is the kind of thing that would need permissions? The house is listed and is in a conservation area.

G_M

If the laurel is yours you can cut it down. Trim it in the shape of the address ( :rotfl:) . Tie or nail a sign to it telling people to come round the back....

k66yla

I don't understand how you can have a problem receiving parcels via Royal Mail, you get post don't you?

vanhelgan

Yes - our regular post comes through fine and any parcels small enough to come with the regular postie are not a problem. When our regular postman changed last year we did have a short spell of letters not turning up either. It is parcels that need to come seperately where the problem generally lies. Some deliveries (eg home delivery network) come through fine.

Think we have something in the deeds re the laurel hege and it's maintenance. I know its planting was a condition of the permissions when the developer built the new estate/remodelled our access. We may have room in front of it though, not sure. I'd rather it was done at the council or developers' cost though than ours if possible although the priority is letting people know where we are.

Old_Git

why dont you get your parcels labeled as x street A in brackets entrance via street B .

vanhelgan

Where I give it verbally or have a "special instructions" box I do - but it's very easy on ebay etc just to follow it through and forget that I need to specify directions. A lot of places also use the "official address" - ironically from Royal Mail which just has street, town, postcode. As I say, small parcels come through fine and some delivery companies. The main probem is Royal Mail parcels, takeaway deliveries, tradesmen etc. I always give directions to these people but it's amazing how many still phone me as they are lost.

I realise I need to explain the situation to people and have done this for nearly 3 years but would prefer to come up with a more permanent solution to the problem as it's starting to grate.

G_M

vanhelgan wrote: »

Think we have something in the deeds re the laurel hege and it's maintenance. I know its planting was a condition of the permissions when the developer built the new estate/remodelled our access. We may have room in front of it though, not sure. I'd rather it was done at the council or developers' cost though than ours if possible although the priority is letting people know where we are.

Can I respectfully suggest you look at the deeds then? We can hardly offer advice as we can't see them!

As for the cost - for goodness sake! Either this is so insignificant an issue that we can all go home, or it worries you enough to spend, surely, a few £ on a sign!!! Stick it in front of 'your' laurels so the parcel force man knows where to go! Waiting for the council, or anyone else, to sort out your problems is just madness!

vanhelgan

Sorry - was just asking for a bit of advice. We have put up with the situation for several years now so it's not super urgent but I just wanted to know what my options were to sort it out. Whether the council had any obligations to sign or not etc. If the only way is to look into whether we are allowed to hack back/remove our hedge and install our own sign then we will have to look into that. Didn't mean to frustrate anyone...