Snowy Monaro Road Name Bank
Consultation has concluded
Thank you to everyone who submitted their suggestions for our Snowy Monaro Road Name Bank. Our team is now reviewing all submissions and will present a report to the council for further community engagement before the names are submitted for approval.
Background
The Snowy Monaro is experiencing an increase in the number of proposed subdivisions. This could lead to up to 80 new roads being named above normal in the coming five to ten years with potentially 20 in the coming 12 months. Snowy Monaro Regional Council is endeavouring to create a road name bank to meet this need for two reasons:
- Create road names through community input that are relevant and unique to the Snowy Monaro and for each of the towns, villages and other localities
- Reduce the time taken to process road naming proposals for new subdivisions by carrying out parts of the process upfront in bulk to increase efficiency and put downward pressure on turn-around times for development applications and subdivision certification.
Guidance on Road Names Suggested
The Geographical Names Board (GNB) requires road name proposed to meet certain criteria while SMRC encourages names in line with particular principles. Generally, names should:
- Have no duplication or not be too similar to existing road names within the locality or nearby localities. This can be checked using the GNBs road name eligibility check found here: https://proposals.gnb.nsw.gov.au/public/road-names/evaluation
- No names of living or recently deceased people (last 12 months), If a commemorative name is proposed that is the same as a living person’s name, it should be for a descendant or past generations with outstanding community services or achievements
- No business names
- One word only, two may be accepted in certain circumstances ie plant names and no prefixes or suffixes ie east, west, north, south
- Names that are easier to pronounce and spell and are not offensive
- For most parts of the Snowy Monaro, names that are variations of Mountain, River, Hill, Alpine and Snow will not be accepted due to the large volume of road and place names that already include variations of these. This reduces confusion in identifying locations and roads.
- Names can be proposed in line with themes ie nearby geographical features, early settlers, pioneers, history and historical figures, commemorative names of people with outstanding local community service, flora and fauna, skiing and snowboarding related, war servicemen and women – particularly the fallen or any other theme the community find relevant.
Road Naming Process
Council's Information Technology team, through the Geographic Information System (GIS) program, has responsibility for facilitating the road naming process with proponents of new road names (typically developers of subdivisions), community, internal SMRC stakeholders and the GNB. Currently, road naming for new subdivisions follows the below general process:
- Agree on road name with the proponent of each development and check eligibility against Geographical Names Board road naming policy
- Council report for endorsement of road name to be publicly advertised for comment and to go to the GNB for pre-approval
- Review and respond to submissions if required
- Council report for approval and gazettal of the road name
- Go to GNB for approval
- Gazettal of road names when the road is complete and publicly available with public notification by GNB of the gazettal signed by the SMRC CEO
Currently, each road name process takes three to six months to complete depending on approvals by the GNB, Council and public submissions.
The creation of this road name bank with public consultation aims to conduct steps 2 to 4 above in ‘bulk’.
It is anticipated that this will cut the process for road name proposals to receive GNB approval, to less than two weeks.
Once a draft road name list is compiled in response to this call for names, it will be put to Council for endorsement to again be publicly advertised for comment before final approval by Council.
How can you have a name considered for inclusion in the road name bank?
Please submit your road names by 11.59pm Sunday 3 September 2023 by completing our submission form below or send your proposed road name via:
Email: council@snowymonaro.nsw.gov.au
Post: Snowy Monaro Regional Council PO BOX 714 Cooma NSW 2630
If you have a question or would like more information please phone 1300 345 345.