Advice Note 6 Postcodes |
INTRODUCTION
NOTE: - This advice note is designed
to be printed and distributed. Please download
pdf copy for this purpose.
This Advice Note provides advice on how to obtain information on Postcodes which is necessary in order to define your “community”. You need Postcode information in two parts of your application namely: -
- A list of Postcodes is required as part of your Memorandum and
Articles of Association
- A map needs to be prepared showing the boundaries of your community defined by Postcodes
Depending on the size and complexity of your community, obtaining
the necessary information can be problematic. For the Memorandum
and Articles
of Association you need to obtain a simple list of Postcodes. For
the map you need to obtain the boundaries of the Postcodes.
Before starting to find the Postcodes you will need, you should
have a fairly good idea of how you wish to define your community
in geographical
terms. You should do this by drawing a boundary line around the
area you wish to define.
The task then becomes one of finding out what Postcodes are included
within that boundary and where their boundaries are. These Postcodes
will then need to be incorporated into your Memorandum and Articles
of Association and the external boundary that the Postcodes collectively
form will be the boundary of your community and need to be plotted
on a map.
HOW TO OBTAIN THE INFORMATION
The Community Right to Buy Guidance claims that this information
can be obtained from the General Register Office of Scotland (GROS).
In
practice this is not possible since the GROS are only in a position
to supply such data at the level of a local authority and there
are significant costs in obtaining the data.
Image produced from Ordnance
Survey's Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with permission of
Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.
A MAP showing boundaries of a community as defined by Postcodes.
(This map was generated using the graphics functions within a standard
word processing programme)
The Royal Mail website (www.royalmail.com) incorporates a Postcode
Finder with which you can find the Postcode associated with any
address and all the addresses associated with a particular Postcode.
For
a small community of a few hundred people, there will only be
a handful of Postcodes and they can be easily located using the
Finder.
The
number
of searches are limited to 12 per day so you may have to arrange
for a number of people to undertake the searches and/or do them
over several
days.
Your local Library or Post Office may hold a list of Postcodes which
can be consulted. In addition, some Electoral Rolls are organized
on the basis of Postcodes. Contact your Local Authority to find
out what they can provide - they may be able to provide both postcodes
and associated maps.
For larger communities, a great number of Postcodes will have to
be sourced and in such cases it is advisable to seek assistance
from your
Local Authority or from the Scottish Executive Land Reform Branch.
It may be that your community can be defined by a higher level Postcode
sector (e.g. AB22).
Please note that you may have to revise your definition and accompanying
map one you find out the geographical distribution of the Postcodes
which may or may not align themselves with your desired geographical
community. It is thus a task that is worth initiating early on in
the process.
Also remember that your map needs to conform with the Community right
to Buy (Specification of Maps) (Scotland) Regulations 2004. You can
find a link to these regulations on the Information page at www.landreformact.com.
In summary, the sources of information for Postcodes are: -
- Royal Mail website
- Local Authority
- Post Office
- Local Library
- Scottish Executive Land Reform Branch.