Words: John Baron
Councillors in West Leeds will next week discuss a campaign by residents who have a BD (Bradford) postcode who want to switch to a LS28 postcode.
Pudsey MP Stuart Andrew and the Sunnybank Recreation Group have asked the Outer West Community Committee to investigate longstanding issues for residents who have a BD (Bradford) postcode but live within the Leeds City Council boundary.
A Leeds council report says a group of Thornbury residents from the Sunnybank Lane, Grove and Avenue area have been campaigning for a postcode change from BD3 to LS28 (Pudsey) for a number of years.
But Royal Mail, which makes the decisions over postcodes, has previously cited ‘operational difficulties’ for not changing.
Residents say this is unfair and have had significant issues accessing basic public services, including police and health care, with Leeds-based NHS services refusing to see them residents because of their Bradford postcode.
They are asking councillors to determine how the issues can be resolved.
The council reportsays:
“Residents living on the Leeds / Bradford boundary have to navigate confusing and varied systems, particularly relating to health and social care services, which other residents of Leeds or Bradford may not experience.
“It is also clear that the health services themselves may not have managed these referrals correctly in line with their own policies on some occasions. It is also possible that a resident’s understanding of where they should be entitled to treatment is not in line with the policies set out by the service providers.”
The Outer West Community committee – which is made up of nine councillors from Calverley & Farsley, Farnley & Wortley and Pudsey wards – will discuss the issue at their meeting in Leeds Civic Hall next Monday, 8 November.
The council report can be read in full here.
WLD reported in December 2017 how residents living in Tyersal were refused an LS28 postcode by Royal Mail – despite being part of Pudsey Ward since local government reorganisation in 1974.
Since then Stuart Andrew MP has surveyed 800 homes in BD3, BD4 and BD10 areas to try understand the issues and gauge support for change.