The residents who want to change their Bradford postcode to a Leeds one

Sunnybank Grove, Sunnybank Lane and Sunnybank Avenue in Thornbury currently have a BD3 postcode, despite falling into the Leeds City Council local authority area.

According to a report, set to go before local councillors next week, reasons given include referrals made to the wrong local health authority, confusion over where hospital patients should be taken and “a perception over higher insurance costs and lower house prices”.

The paper states that, while the changing of the postcode could help resolve some of the issues brought up by residents, there is no requirement for local authority and postcode areas to be aligned.

Royal Mail have also hinted that they had no intention of changing the postcode for “non-operational reasons”, insisting it would be “illogical” to do so.

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The council was approached by Pudsey MP Stuart Andrew (Con) in January 2020, in order to look at altering the postcodes. The council then consulted on the idea, even though the decision ultimately lands with Royal Mail.

A report by planning experts, set to be discussed by Leeds City Council’s outer west community committee, claimed the streets could have been getting confused by the Royal Mail with similarly-named areas in Bradford.

It stated: “Following initial investigations it was found that a discrepancy existed between Royal Mail’s database and the official street name records held by Leeds City Council such that Sunnybank was incorrectly held as ‘Sunny Bank’ in Royal Mail databases.

“This was of particular relevance as there was already a street in Bradford called Sunny Bank Avenue with a BD5 postcode, and there was some suggestion that these two streets were getting confused.”

It added that residents living in the area could be being incorrectly referred to NHS services, leading to delays in discharges.