Villagers vote over Welsh postcode

Tidenham receives utility bills in Welsh and English

Villagers in the English border town of Tidenham are to vote in a referendum to decide whether to ditch their Welsh postcode.

Tidenham lies on the English side of the River Wye in Gloucestershire, but has a Welsh postcode because the nearest major town is Chepstow.

Residents are unhappy at receiving utility bills, driving licenses and electoral information in Welsh.

Consignia says the postcode helps efficient sorting

On Thursday afternoon, villagers will be casting their votes at Tidenham War Memorial Hall in Tuts Hill and at Sudbury and Beach Village Hall.

The referendum is being run along the lines of a general election and will even have a returning officer.

The vote - which is costing the parish council £1,500 - is expected to be counted by the end of the evening.

Tidenham residents have denied that they are motivated by any anti-Welsh feeling.

They said they simply want official recognition of their English status.

Lance Allan, chairman of Tidenham Parish Council, said the long-running problem has become worse since the Welsh Assembly was created.

It resulted in a stream of letters and information about elections in which they had no vote.

Mr Allan said: "We've been arguing with the Post Office for two or three years now.

"But they basically say that's the way they deliver the mail.

"They set the postcode based on that, and if other people want to use it for other reasons, that's the other people's problem.

He added: "They're becoming much more of a commercial organisation.

"They are obviously not making much money at the moment, and obviously don't want to change something that'll cost them money."

Delayed mail

Forest of Dean MP Diana Organ raised the issue in a parliamentary debate in March 2000.

She claimed it had resulted in postal delays as people could not believe that mail intended for a Gloucestershire village was sorted in Wales.

Royal Mail has insisted that postcodes are designed to help process mail as efficiently as possible, and were not intended as a geographical reference.

Operations manager Martin Dale said they could not change Tidenham's postcode, but would help promote the fact that the village was in England rather than Wales.