GIVE us an E!
That’s the call from people in Honley who face an unwanted change of address after much confusion about how their street name should be spelled.
Dozens of householders who believe they live on Stoney Lane have received letters from Royal Mail telling them that it should really be spelled Stony Lane and that this is how all postal addresses should now read.
It means residents now have to contact friends, relatives, banks and other organisations they deal with asking them to change their records.
One resident said: “People are not best pleased. It’s been called Stoney Lane for generations.
“Now all of a sudden it’s Stony Lane and people have been sent letters saying their address has now changed.”
Residents aren’t the only ones left confused.
The Kirklees street guide lists the street as Stony Lane and existing street signs agree. But the council’s own website gives the address for Honley Community Centre as Stoney Lane.
A spokesman for the council’s highways department said: “We have many roads with ‘variant spellings’ for historic reasons.
“An old cast-iron sign in the lane has it without the ‘e’, but in recent years it started being spelled with the ‘e’.
“A recent change in signing to a housing complex saw a sign go up without the ‘e’, which led to this being raised by residents.
“Checks with the highways register and old signs showed that the early spelling was without the ‘e’.
“We brought the issue up with Royal Mail, who – after writing to all residents in the lane – have adopted the spelling without the ‘e’.”
