Correct spelling finally for the Tyrone street with wrong name

Residents of an Aughnacloy street are finally, after 25 years, to get a road sign with the correct spelling.

‘Laural Drive’ was approved as a street name by both Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council and Royal Mail in September 2000, without the spelling being queried.

However, the misspelling has led to many years of problems for people living in the street around deliveries and trying to obtain insurance.

Now, the eight households in ‘Laural Drive’ have chosen to have their street renamed ‘Laurel Drive’ – the correct spelling.

The spelling mistake also has had another unforeseen consequence in recent months, as Mid Ulster District Council, which replaced Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council in 2015, 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.

The matter was initially mentioned at an Environment committee meeting of the Mid Ulster 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 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 this week’s Environment Services committee meeting of the council.

The agenda item explained that all eight households in ‘Laural Drive’ were 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 the meeting by DUP councillor James Burton and seconded by his party colleague Mark Robinson.