NEW roads made in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole will no longer be given names of roads that already exist.
Currently, there are two Ashley Roads (Boscombe and Parkstone), three Clarendon Roads (Westbourne, Broadstone and Christchurch) and Wimborne Road (Poole and Bournemouth).
They were all named by the three separate Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch borough councils before the merger to BCP in 2019.
However, while these roads won’t be having a name change, new roads or roads which will be renamed will no longer have the same name.
A new single street naming and numbering policy has been passed by BCP Council’s cabinet at a meeting held on February 7.
Council leader Vikki Slade said: “There are some oddities around this [...] because it harmonises the use of odd numbers on the left and even on the right and use consecutive numbers on a cul-de-sac.
“The thing which is important is how we reflect the use of names in our policy and we have actually pushed for a change in this.
“Historically in Bournemouth, the old council enabled streets and places to be named after people who had had a significant impact on the town.
“But the most recent policy in Poole didn’t and so we’ve had the real sadness of people have made huge contributions but after their death we haven’t been able to reflect that in street naming.”
In Bournemouth, such road names include Robert Louis Stevenson Avenue (named after the writer who lived in Bournemouth), Tregonwell Road (Lewis Tregonwell, founder of modern Bournemouth) and Cooper Dean Drive and Dean Park Road and Crescent (after landowners Cooper Dean family).
In addition, the Tapps-Gervis-Meyrick Estate and family connections inspired Ashbourne Road, Bodorgan Road, Gervis Road and Place and Upper Hinton Road among others.
Cllr Slade said that by including this new policy in Poole to name roads after the dead who had made a contribution to the town, it will “make sure we have the choice to recognise them”.
Cllr Kieron Wilson questioned why people had to be dead to be recognised with a street name.
Cllr Andy Hadley replied: “I don’t know the answer but if I just say Jimmy Saville. The problem is you don’t know what is going to happen in the rest of their lives.”
British prime ministers give their names to Gladstone Road, Palmerston Road and Mews, Rosebery Road and Salisbury Road.
More surprisingly there are also roads in Bournemouth named after US presidents, including Cleveland Road and Gardens, Garfield Avenue, Grants Avenue and Close, Jefferson Avenue, Lincoln Avenue, Roosevelt Crescent, Washington Avenue and Wilson Road.
There is no Trump Road.
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