As was expected, all eight households surveyed in ‘Laural Drive’, Aughnacloy, have now elected to have their street renamed ‘Laurel Drive’ – this being the correct spelling.
Having the name of their street correctly spelt will bring to an end 25 years of confusion for delivery drivers, and much relief for the residents when seeking to obtain insurance.
The spelling mistake has had another unforeseen consequence in recent months, as the council had received a request for bilingual Irish-English signage at that location, however the typo had to be fixed first ahead of any survey on the matter.
‘Laural Drive’ had been approved as a street name by both Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council – as well as Royal Mail – in September 2000, without the spelling being queried.
The matter was initially mentioned at an Environment committee meeting of Mid Ulster District Council on November 12, 2024.
The relevant agenda item explained that street signs for both “Laural Drive” and “Laurel Drive” had actually been put up, adding to the confusion: “Street signage indicating the name ‘Laurel Drive’ had been erected at this development by the former council at that time, and current street signage still indicates ‘Laurel Drive’.
“Current street signage for Lettice Street includes the text ‘leading to Laural Grove’.
“Householders have advised the reason for this request [to change the spelling] is that they are having difficulties with deliveries and obtaining insurances, due to the confusion over the spelling differences of the development name.”
Another difficulty lay in the that there had been a request for English-Irish signage, and it is very difficult to translate a word which technically does not exist – namely ‘Laural’.
Three months on, the matter was mentioned again at last Tuesday’s (February 11) Environment meeting of Mid Ulster District Council.
The agenda item explains that all eight households in ‘Laural Drive’ were duly surveyed. All replied by the January 8 deadline, expressing a preference for their street to be renamed ‘Laurel Drive’.
This means that a new survey will now be carried out, to find out whether the street residents want to opt for bilingual Irish-English street signage.
The change of name from ‘Laural Drive’ to ‘Laurel Drive’ was proposed at last Tuesday’s Environment committee meeting by Cllr James Burton (DUP, Dungannon DEA) and seconded by Cllr Mark Robinson (DUP, Clogher Valley DEA).
