THE address and postcode of a number of houses in a village are being changed following an administrative error.

Householders who moved into the brand new homes in Cotford St Luke just a year ago say the "needless change" will cost them money and "bother".

The address was originally registered as Luscombe Road, Cotford St Luke, TA4 1EB. Somerset West and Taunton Council has informed the residents they now live at Luscombe Road, North Villas, Cotford St Luke, TA4 1ED. Until now, existing houses on one side of the road were simply in North Villas, while opposite the new houses were in Luscombe Road.

Amy Barclay, who lives in Luscombe Road with husband Steve, and children Jack and Molly, said: "It's a needless change. We've lived here a year without any problems.

"The council says there could be a problem in the event of an emergency, but the police and an ambulance have been to houses and found them easily enough.

"I've asked the postie and they said there wasn't a problem.

"We're going to have to pay administrative costs to change things such as house and car insurance, mortgage documents, our dog's microchip and to have post forwarded.

"As well as that, there's the bother of having to re-register our address with our doctor and the children's school. And the council will have to pay for a new street sign.

"I've written a letter back to SWT saying I don't understand the upheaval and asking why it's taken them a year to discover there's an issue."

Mrs Barclay added that she was not amused to have received letters from the council, one with her wrong house number and the other with her house number and the wrong name.

"And that's when they're telling me I've got to change my address," she said.

An SWT spokesperson said: "Most of the development is on a new road, Luscombe Road, and all the properties were given this address.

"However, a few properties actually face onto an existing road, North Villas, and their address should reflect this to comply with street naming guidelines.

"This change is essential as it is important that the location of each property can be easily identified, especially in the event of an emergency, but we have kept the changes to a minimum and have taken steps to prevent this happening again.

"We have apologised to the small number of residents that are affected for the inconvenience caused and will be writing a further letter explaining how they can be reimbursed for any essential expenditure.

"We also apologise to the resident who received letters not addressed to them, this was due to a technical glitch with the mail merge."