A SOUTHAMPTON councillor has succeeded in his campaign to officially get a neighbourhood on the map, nearly 30 years after it was built.

When Waterside Park was constructed, no official record was kept at Southampton City Council in terms of what the area should be called.

Over the past three decades it has been referred to by several names including Jurds Lake, Rolling Mills, the Redrow Estate, Waterside Park and also another part of Woolston, which is nearby.

Cllr Warwick Payne, who represents the area, wanted to settle the matter once and for all and sent a survey to every household on the estate, which consists of around 375 homes.

He said: “We had a great response and 72 per cent of residents opted for Waterside Park from all the possible choices, with the others getting just 28 per cent between them.”

With a clear mandate from the residents, he approached the city council to secure official recognition for the name, and then approached the Ordnance Survey, based at Adanac Park on Southampton’s western outskirts, to encourage them to add Waterside Park to their maps.

Cllr Payne added: “This neighbourhood should have had an official name from the start. It was like somebody being born without a birth certificate and if you looked for it on the map, there wasn’t any name visible anywhere. Now we’ve put that right.

“It will not be compulsory for residents to put Waterside Park on their addresses, but hopefully now, the neighbourhood will have a clear identity.

“Adopting the name shouldn’t cost any taxpayers’ money, and I’d like to thank the Ordnance Survey for their kind cooperation. They couldn’t have been more helpful.”

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