Dominic Bareham WHAT'S in a name? The answer appears to be quite a lot if you live in North Road, Hemsby, where residents have voted unanimously to reject a proposal to number houses - preferring instead to keep the individual names.

Dominic Bareham

WHAT'S in a name? The answer appears to be quite a lot if you live in North Road, Hemsby, where residents have voted unanimously to reject a proposal to number houses - preferring instead to keep the individual names.

Great Yarmouth Borough Council planners have written to the 40 homeowners in the road asking whether they supported the idea of having house numbers instead of names, after some residents had voiced concern over emergency services struggling in the dark to find the relevant property.

However, many residents could not see the point in changing a long-standing tradition and could not see the point in having numbers.

One homeowner, who did not wish to be named, said: “We are just happy to have our names on there. I have lived here 35 years and I bought this bit of land and it did not have any numbers on it when I bought it 35 years ago.”

Dawn Hodds, 73, who has lived at her home since 1964, said she was not bothered whether the houses were numbered or named, although she believed having numbers would help the postal services find the right houses.

She said: “Since I have lived here, I have not had a problem. People never have a problem finding our house, although some people do occasionally ask where other people live.”

Arthur Lake, 77, thought there was a need to have numbered properties on large housing estates, but not North Road and he had never known visitors or mail to arrive at the wrong address.

He conceded numbering would make it easier for people to find houses as they could work out how far they were away from where they needed to be.

The borough council's planning department is yet to make a decision.