THIS NORTH Yorkshire street is a postman's nightmare.

Take a stroll along Station Road in Easingwold and watch the street name change from door to door.

The Garth is in Station Road but next door Torosay is in Raskelf Road. Addresses alternate without warning until the baffled postman reaches four properties with a third address - Station Cottages, sometimes known as Railway Cottages!

And as a final twist, a name plate at the entrance to Station Road reads "Raskelf Road".

Post office managers and Hambleton councillors have now acted to ease the postal headache and relieve the residents of their identity crisis.

They have decreed that all the properties along this stretch, with the exception of Station Cottages, should bear the address of Station Road.

Dave McGloin, the council's head of technical services, explained how the confusion grew.

"It would appear to have happened because of the misnamed street name," he said. "One or two residents who were new to the area have taken Raskelf Road as their address." Residents were informed by letter - presumably to the right addresses. No objections were received, Mr McGloin said.

The electoral register and Royal Mail address list will be amended.

Meanwhile, Hambleton councillors have settled a dispute between a house developer and Easingwold Town Council over the naming of a new cul-de-sac.

Town councillors wanted to use Tower Croft as the name for four properties at the town's Claypenny Hospital Site. They said the name is derived from a former landmark tower nearby. But developer Hogg The Builder preferred Mowbray Croft, and said prospective purchasers objected to Tower Croft.

One, from Cambridgeshire, wrote: "The image conjured up by the name Tower Croft is that of a high-rise development in an inner London borough with all the associated ills of graffiti, vandalism etc."

Another, from Shrewsbury, who had previously lived in Easingwold, said the water tower was "a real eyesore", adding "I cannot believe that the council are proposing to make reference to this".

But Easingwold Town Council clerk Strickland Carter said: "There must be many street names throughout the country involving the word Tower where residents have not thought it derogatory."

This week, Hambleton District Councillors agreed to the name Tower Croft.

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