Postcode Portraits

WD6 1JF

in which E20 is no longer Hertfordshire

Royal Mail’s proposals to delete counties from their database of 28 million postal addresses because the postcode and property number are all that is required to identify an address, has provoked public concern that it will lead to a loss of local heritage and identity.

The removal of the county from postal address will not take place until 2013 and is in part a response to the continued use of obsolete county names such as Sussex, Gwynned, Cleveland and Avon.

Ian Beesley, chairman of the board that advises the Royal mail on the running of their database of postcodes told the Daily Telegraph how county names had become ‘a kind of vanity attachment’, adding that ‘people do get very worked up about it and one has to recognise it. It is in our history and our heritage. I want to say I was born in Lancashire, not in ‘M20’’, however, they are ‘no longer necessary for business and administrative purposes.’

However, as one generation bemoans the status of being identified under a alpha-numerical geographical reference, Eastenders, the 25-year running British soap opera staged around a community in the fictional area of Walford in London’s east-end, has launched an internet based spin-off aimed at a younger audience… titled E20 after London’s real east-end postcode.

The real life Albert Square is a set in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire.

FY6 8LA

in which travellers seek official recognition of their address

 

A judge has provoked outcry in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, after ordering the local council to aid in the granting of a postcode to an illegally developed traveller’s site. 

Fylde council, who had sought an injunction against a group of 70 travellers who had set up camp in a field on the outskirts of the village of Hardhorn, were ordered by the Crown Court Judge to ‘use their best endeavours’ to help the community secure a postcode for the plot of land. 

The travellers argued that the field, which currently has 30 caravans, needed a postcode to help emergency services find them. However, if a postcode is granted it will make the community eligible for connections to utilities such as gas, electricity and water as well as entitle them to claim state benefits. 

A planning application for the development of the site is outstanding and will be decided separately from the court order. The decision on whether to give the site a postcode will be taken by the Royal Mail.

BH5 1LT

in which it is hot no more

Experian – the consumer research and credit rating agency – released an updated version of its Mosaic UK profiles in 2009. Their new database, compiled from 441 data items selected from every person, household, postcode and Output Area in the UK - a total of ‘21 billion data items’ - made some revealing findings on the changing status of Britain’s aging population. 

According to current predictions, in 10 years time there will be 2.4million more over-65s than there are today. This shift in the number of people reaching retirement age, coupled with rising levels of wealth is already taking affect, according to the Daily Mail, with many retirees turning their backs on the traditional sea-side retirement destinations for preference over more sought after inland locations. 

 The traditional coastal retirement resorts, which grew to accommodate the retiring middle-class after the war, are no longer the destination of choice for this new demographic. Or rather the five new demographic types of retiree according to Mosaic: 

Beachcombers (who reflect the growing trend for the middle-class retired to select smaller communities, many on the coast or a river, rather than larger resorts) choose Barnstaple, Newport (Isle of Wight), Carmarthen, Inverness, Kendal, Newton Abbot. 

Balcony downsizers (higher-status retired people in their 70s and 80s, who live in privately owned or leasehold apartments in purpose-built blocks of flats suitable for those too fragile to cope with the upkeep of houses and gardens) choose Worthing, Boscombe, Edinburgh, Southend-on-Sea, Barnet, Kingston upon Thames. 

Golden retirement (people with accumulated assets, who pick prestigious retirement communities, lead busy social lives, drive and garden) choose Exeter, Southampton, Poole, Chichester, Norwich, Canterbury and Ipswich. 

Bungalow quietude (retirees with modest pensions, living in older-style bungalows, often in less well-off areas unattractive to younger families) choose Blackpool, Rhyl, Scarborough, Plymouth, Nottingham, Peterborough, Newcastle upon Tyne, Lincoln, Leicester. 

Country-loving elders (people on comfortable incomes living in former farms or older-style properties in quiet villages and market towns) choose Truro, King's Lynn, Hereford, Carlisle, Shrewsbury. 

This shift in lifestyle choice, partly supported by the sale of mortgage-free homes, is better accommodated for by inland market towns, historic cities and major cultural destinations. 

‘People want to spend more of their retirement in the country, in areas of attractive scenery,’ said Richard Webber, visiting professor of geography at University College London, who helped develop Mosaic. ‘And they are choosing to live a long way from London and other major population centres.’ 

Webber said around half of those reaching retirement age choose to carry on living in their own home, or at least in the same area. But of those with above-average wealth, around 60 per cent choose to live somewhere else. Half of these now select less traditional retirement destinations. 

‘A lot more older people want to retire to places of historic importance, places that have orchestras and festivals,’ said Webber. ‘They're looking at historic market towns and cities, places like Bath and Cheltenham, cathedral cities and university towns where there are beautiful buildings.’

W12 7RJ

in which the BBC ponders geodemographics

The influence of geodemographic classification on the shaping of Britain over the last decade was noted in the BBC’s documentary series, ‘History of Now: The Story of the Noughties’. 

The programme questioned the effect of marketing and consumerism on the democratic and political process over the last decade.