MP’s Humberside Must Go campaign takes a big step forward

Humberside must go

The term Humberside could be dropped forever from postal addresses thanks to a long-running campaign by Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart.

 After more than two years of meetings, co-ordinating joint submissions and calling on Postcomm to drop the long-defunct title from electronic files used by the Royal Mail, commissioners have announced they will make a decision by the end of the year.

 Graham said: “We are not there yet, but I am very hopeful we will get the right result.

 “For years people who live in the East Riding of Yorkshire, Hull and across the Humber in North and North East Lincolnshire have simply not understood why this has taken so long to put right.”

 He added: “I have met with Royal Mail directors, senior members of the Postal Services Commission Postcomm, I have written numerous letters to both and I have co-ordinated joint submissions and pleas from other MPs and councillors across the area for Humberside to be dropped.”

 A letter from Philip Groves, Senior Associate, Strategy and Market Development, at Postcomm, said: “Royal Mail has proposed to handle this question outside the immediate review of the Code of Practice and to consult the Postcode Address File (PAF) Advisory Board before deciding on the best approach to adopt.

 “Our Commissioners will consider the proposed changes to the Code of Practice including Royal Mail’s approach on the issue of county information in November and we hope to publish a decision this year which will include the issue you and your colleagues raised.”

 Graham added: “I am delighted the commissioners are taking this seriously. I know many of my constituents will be delighted if it is finally decided to rectify this anomaly and drop Humberside forever.

 Councillor Stephen Parnaby OBE, Leader of East Riding of Yorkshire Council said:  “I too am delighted that it is being taken seriously, as many people have contacted me to express their utter frustration that Humberside is still being used in addresses after all these years.  Hopefully commonsense will prevail.”

The Royal Mail did not adopt Humberside as a postal county, instead dividing the area into North Humberside and South Humberside for purposes of directing mail with effect from 1 July 1975.

Counties ceased to form part of addresses in 1996. Under the Royal Mail’s flexible addressing policy, in force since that date, users can choose to add a county to an address as long as the post town and postcode are included.

The policy allows for the use of either the “former postal”, “traditional” or “administrative” county. The Postcode Address File Code of Practice does not allow for changes in the former postal county.

In 2008 the Postal Services Commission (Postcomm) announced it was holding a public consultation into the code. At that time Graham Stuart MP launched the Humberside Must Go campaign and called for Postcomm to recommend the deletion of North and South Humberside from postal databases.