Street confusion
Do you know what your address is? It seems like a simple question but for the residents of Heol Felen, Garnant in Carmarthenshire it's one that they answer 'no' to.
Firstly, a quick history lesson.Heol Felen is a quiet country lane that is the dividing line between the districts of Glanaman and Garnant in the Amman Valley. It's been the source of confusion for many years in the area due to the way the street is named.
The left hand side of the road has the address Heol Felen, Glanaman. The right hand side of the road has the address Heol Felen, Garnant.
Thus we have a situation where there are two identical sets of house numbers in the same street. For example, there's a number 3 Heol Felen, Glanaman and a number 3 Heol Felen, Garnant both on the same stretch of road!
Over the years this set-up has resulted in mail being delivered to the wrong address and other minor inconveniences but the residents were generally able to sort it out amongst themselves.
However, nearly 3 years ago something happened to make things even more confusing. The residents of Heol Felen (on the Garnant side of the road) suddenly had their side of the street renamed Clos Felen!
They were surprised to say the least. Especially seeing as no-one had informed them beforehand.
Usually a council would notify affected residents and ballot them regarding any proposed name change to a street but this obviously hadn't happened in this case.
Resident Marc Withers told us how he'd spent more than two years trying to get to the bottom of the case - without any luck.
He firstly tried Carmarthenshire County Council seeing as they were the ones who'd erected the new sign. They were unable to help him and suggested the name change had occurred due to a request from Royal Mail who wanted to update their mapping systems.
Marc contacted Royal Mail who informed him that the request hadn't come from them and suggested the responsibility lay with Carmarthenshire County Council.
Back Marc went to Carmarthenshire County Council who now told him that the request had come from Cwmamman local Town Council.
Marc had difficulty contacting Cwmamman Town Council and in desperation went to his local housing officer who also drew a blank. That was when he got X-Ray involved.
We spoke to Carmarthenshire County Council who said that they find the whole situation very puzzling. They say they "have not received a formal request to rename Heol Felen and enquiries are presently underway as why the new street sign was erected."
The residents of Heol/Clos Felen (depending which address you're using!) hope that they can come up with a definitive answer soon.
As Marc said in our film: "I just want to know where I live." That's not much to ask, is it?
