Tag: Milestone

After trying to register a postal address for months to no end, I was considering the alternative of applying for a PO box life membership.

And then it was all too easy …

The “problem” was a mixture of not having an access road to the plot where we would like to receive postal mail and having no building on the plot with which the address could be connected to. And then you can only start building with a planning permission. But then how would you get deliveries to the construction site without an address?

Note: yes, this is somehow possible, as in using addresses (which we did) such as:
That Gate on the A9 opposite of
The Red Farm
Caithness
AB1 2YZ

However, often shops do a real-time address lookup and would not find “That Gate” …

When contacting Royal Mail directly via one of their “I would like to register a new postal address” forms, we got the reply, that only the Highland Council could actually register new addresses. Hmmm, so why offering this service in the first place, one might ask?

Highland Council then told us that only with a planning permission and a completed house we could actually register a new address. Bummer.

We are building a house in the future, but we want to start with a barn first, for which we do not need a planning permission.

Rescue came in the form of a “Planning Prior Notification” which is a “notification” (hence the name?) to the Highland Council that we want to build a barn for which we do not need a planning permission, as it falls under “permissible development”.

Funnily, this “notification” still has to be approved by the Highland Council. So, is it then really still a notification? One does not know.

Anyway, with this notification approved we could then ask for a new postal address at the Highland Council by actually getting a “Unique Property Reference Number” (UPRN) first.

Once we got that we could proceed and have the address being activated in the Royal Mail database (but not in the Highland Council address database, as the building has not yet been completed).

And then it was only a matter of days, that I could do a search for “Loch Watenan” and get the address returned.

Our letter box installed and awaiting mail. End of story.

Ok, it was not that simple.

Some things that had to be done before this happened:

1. Provide exact details of the location of the property
2. Provide the planning reference number
3. Choose house name (much more difficult than one would think)
4. Provide the OS grid reference number for the property
5. Find the What 3 Words address for the property
6. Convince Highland Council that we still want a postal address and have a secure drop-off point, though our building has no access road
7. Ask for exception to be included in the Royal Mail address database though the building has not yet been completed
8. Confirm that delivery to that address is really possible
9. Inform the local Royal Mail delivery guys that there is actually a new address (probably the most important point here)

Side information here: the road to Loch Watenan actually has a name, though most people here do not know. It is “Watenan Road“.

Originally this was an unnamed road (“U1202” road) while some locals claim, the road was called something like “Marble Road”.

In reality road name or house name, it does not seem to make a difference. The only thing up here that counts, is: the two local mail delivery guys know you exist. So basically one could write any house name with the correct post code on it, as long it has the correct name (your name) on it.

The “Highland Way” I guess …