Villagers reject Welsh postcode

The parish of Tidenham has a Newport postcode

Residents of a Gloucestershire village have voted to exchange their Welsh postcodes for an English version.

The villagers from Tidenham on the England side of the River Wye, have the Welsh postcode of NP because their nearest sorting office is in Newport.

Now a poll has shown that 458 people want to change to a Gloucestershire code, while 295 are happy to stay with the NP code.

But a spokesman for Consignia said postcodes were designed to ease the mail sorting process and not intended to refer to a geographical reference.

We refuse to go on accepting that we can be described as Welsh

Dr Alan Svendsen, poll organiser

Dr Alan Svendsen, who lives in the village and organised the poll, said: "The European Convention on Human Rights requires statutory bodies to treat you with dignity and respect.

"They are not doing this if they treat you as if you are Welsh even though you are English."

Despite the poll result, the vote is unlikely to make any immediate difference.

There are 5,000 people in the parish and many did not vote at all.

Dr Svendsen said: "I think the Post Office will take the view that the proportion of people who voted is too small to be concerned.

"But ordinary people like me have better things to do than be passed between organisations like Consignia and the DVLA.

"We had to demonstrate that a majority want this.

"There is a national boundary and we refuse to go on accepting that we can be described as Welsh - it is unnecessary."