A BATTLE royal has opened between residents in Wyebank Estate and The Martins, in the parish of Tidenham, over just where they live after new signs include the area in Sedbury.
Is it Tutshill or is it Sedbury? Even near-neigbours Rodney Faull and John Powell, who both live in Wyebank Road, fail to agree and have argued over the matter.
This is on top of an ongoing problem which includes most of the parish in the NP (Newport) post code area rather than GL, for Gloucester, which inhabitants claim forces them to pay higher insurance premiums as well as bringing other worries.
"The Wyebank address has been Tutshill for more than 30 years," insists Mr Faull.
The Post Office code system carries this information and all major companies use it, with call centres basing their delivery system on it, he says.
"The Post Office has no intention of changing its post code system and the parish council knows this, so why have they put up notices telling people they are entering Sedbury?"
He says delivery drivers and agents calling on the public in the area are being confused by the new signs, installed by the County Council with millennium funding.
"Signs are intended to help strangers to find places, not to confuse them," said Mr Faull, who believes the proper sign for the start of Sedbury should be outside Wyedean School.
Mr Powell on the other hand has gone to a lot of trouble to prove the Wyebank estate belongs in Sedbury and has consulted the county archivist on the matter, discovering that Sedbury pre-dates Tutshill as a settlement by 356 years, the earliest reference to the latter being 1635.
"I know I am right," says Mr Powell, a parish councillor who is campaigning for the parish to have its post code changed to GL.
"I am in fact the only parish councillor born in Sedbury. I was away for a while in the RAF but I have lived here all my wife."
And parish clerk Clive Hooper, whose council faces discussion on the matter tabled for August, says that while he can see both sides of the argument, the construction of the Wyebank and Martins homes filled in what was once green fields, joining up the two settlements.