Some islanders will be receiving a letter from us advising that their postcodes will be changing. The reason for this is because the UK postcode address file system (PAF) which is run by Royal Mail only allows 99 addresses to be associated with one postcode.
Due to the number of developments in certain areas as well as the number of properties being turned into flats, some island postcodes are becoming oversubscribed. In these circumstances, we are required to issue new postcodes to eliminate the over subscription and help optimise our delivery rounds.
The number of addresses being affected is 800 out of a possible 41,000 residential addresses. We have tried to keep the number of affected properties to a minimum as well as honouring old postcodes for a period of 12 months as we recognise the inconvenience such a change will cause.
We are asking islanders to start using their new postcodes as soon as possible in order to accurately deliver in future. However, we are honouring items of mail with old postcodes on for 12 months to give islanders enough time to change over.
A Brief Guide To UK Postcodes
Postcodes are not static. New properties are constantly being built, old ones demolished, and the Royal Mail sometimes has to re-code within existing areas to maintain or improve distribution efficiency. So postcodes are added, deleted, and in some cases changed on an ongoing basis.
The latest PAF figures show that within the last quarter 5,144 postcodes were added and 1890 were deleted. It is a process that we follow to ensure that the data held on the system is kept current and up to date.
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