Royal Mail county controversy misses the point, says Postcode Anywhere

Address data specialists call for a universal system of geographic boundary classification. Royal Mail’s announcement that county names are to be completely dropped from their address database has met with a mixed response from marketers and the public – but the controversy ‘misses the point’ according to address data specialist Postcode Anywhere.

County names, removed in 2000 from Royal Mail’s complete address database the Postcode Address File (PAF®), are currently still available in the complementary Alias File – which after extensive consultation is to be phased out by 2016.

Postcode Anywhere’s Sales and Marketing Director Phil Rothwell said: “The decision to completely remove county names from Royal Mail’s files has been a long time coming.  We have one of the most sophisticated postal systems in the world – but also the most idiosyncratic, and Royal Mail do a good job maintaining it.

“Getting the right county for an address can be a surprisingly complex and contentious issue.  A series of 1970s boundary changes, affecting mainly Londoners, confused the matter.  Then the mid 1990s saw the introduction of unitary authorities around major cities – leading to bizarre scenarios where, for example, Derby isn’t in Derbyshire – at least administratively speaking!

“County names are an important part of our culture, from cricket clubs to sales patches, and Postcode Anywhere will continue to support all three county definitions after they have been removed from the Alias File.  We will also continue to offer a fourth ‘common-sense’ view of the data to aid address capture and database management.

“The reality is that little will change.  Details such as counties can be something very personal to the British mentality.  Regrettably it may lead to confusion internationally, where address formats tend to be stricter.

“But old habits die hard and people will still be able to add what Ian Beesley, the chairman of the PAF® database advisory board, calls ‘vanity attachments,’ as long as the postcode is correct.

“The crux of the matter is that the county problem has never been with addresses – it’s been in defining geographical areas.  We simply don’t have consistent conventions for this, leading to confusion when mapping out sales areas and definitive boundaries.

“As far back as 1966, The Times commented that ‘children will no doubt wonder why their address should refer to a county in which they have never lived’ due to inconsistencies between geographical and postal counties.  Counties such as Avon don’t technically exist anymore.

“Providing and maintaining definitive boundary data is the thorny problem most commentators seem to have missed.  The storm in a teacup surrounding so-called ‘postcode snobbery’ completely misses the point.”

Postcode Anywhere provides address auto-fill products for e-commerce websites and database applications, as well as a range of services including maps and geographic data.