FAQs

This comes from the street data created and maintained by the Local Highway Authority, and submitted to the National Street Gazetteer.

The street data is updated monthly. It is updated following the publication of the latest street data, which takes place on the 2nd working day of each month.

List of Streets

Search tool

To search on all streets in a selected local highway authority, go to the List of Streets page. Enter all or part of a street name or description and select search. You can filter the search results by authority, district and Town to reduce the number of records returned. The search looks for exact matches so please ensure the street name or description is spelt correctly.

Map

Search tool

Go to the Map page. As you start typing a street name or description, the results will automatically be returned in the search results. The search looks for exact match so please ensure that the street name is spelt correctly.

If no results appear then the search has not found any matches.

You can also search for the unique street reference number by entering it into the 'URSN' search box and clicking the search icon.

Pan and zoom

Once you have zoomed in to the correct scale on the map you will be able to view the full street network by panning the map. This method of searching could be useful particularly when streets have not been named.

If you can’t find a street, it's possible the local highway authority doesn’t know about it yet. Or the street might not be listed in the local authority’s street gazetteer.

If you think there is a missing street it can be reported using the red "Report Feedback" tab on the right-hand side of the web page. Please provide as much detail as possible, as this will help us investigate the issue thoroughly and aid communication with the respective local highway authority if needed. We aim to get back to you within 28 days.

All streets need to be maintained else they fall into disrepair. Most of these are looked after by the local highway authority, however there are some that are maintained privately as they have not been adopted by the Local Authority. There are also streets that are only partly maintained by the authority in this case it is particularly important to get more details from the Authority.

Each street falls into one of four categories:

Maintainable at public expense
The street has been identified as maintainable at public expense. Detailed highway extents are held by the local highway authority.
Not maintainable at public expense
The information used to populate the National Street Gazetteer does not identify that any part of the street is maintained at public expense.
Mixed maintenance responsibility
More than one maintenance responsibility has been recorded against the street. Clarification must be sought with the local highway authority for relevant extents.
Street for Addressing Purpose Only
Sometimes a street isn’t actually a physical thing, but is purely used for locating a property. This could include a Terrace. It is held in the National Street Gazetteer but is referenced as only for addressing.

Data is updated monthly, shortly after the Monthly NSG publication.

No, FindMyStreet is not suitable for this and is only intended for personal use. For any official legal search you must contact the local highway authority who hold detailed highway extents and the formal records on status and classification.

USRNs are allocated against a street as soon as ‘construction' begins or ‘street naming and numbering' has been carried out – whichever comes first. Please see the GeoPlace website for more information about USRNs.

No. FindMyStreet only identifies if a Local Authority is responsible for maintenance of the street. It doesn’t show access rights or ownership of a street. For detailed information on who can use a street you should speak to the local highway authority.

Yes, if it has been submitted to the National Street Gazetteer by the Local Highway Authority you will find this data on findmystreet.co.uk. For detailed information and access to the definitive map for PRoW you should speak to the Local Highway Authority directly.

No. The Data in FMS cannot be exported in Excel format. A PDF version can downloaded. This is because there is Intellectual property in the NSG database and the data is only for personal use.

Supply of the National Street Gazetteer is restricted by licence for street and road works related purposes. However Local highway authority street information is available commercially through the OSMM Highways suite of products here.

Road are classified to help motorists use the most suitable routes to reach their destination, identifying those suited for different types of vehicles and amounts of traffic.

FindMyStreet shows roads within England and Wales that are classified using the categories listed below:

A-roads
Major roads intended to provide large-scale transport links within or between areas. Generally, an A-road will be among the widest, most direct roads in an area, and is of the greatest significance to traffic travelling through the area.
B-roads
Roads intended to connect different areas and to feed traffic between A-roads and smaller roads on the network. B-roads are still important routes for traffic (including traffic travelling through the area), but less so than an A-road.
C-roads (classified unnumbered)
These are generally smaller roads intended to connect together unclassified roads with A and B roads, and often linking a housing estate or a village to the rest of the network. C-roads performs a more important function than an unclassified road.
Neither M, A, B or C
This refers to roads which have a classification other than M, A, B or C. These are typically streets considered as unclassified highways that are maintainable at public expense, or streets that are not maintainable at public expense. Local highway authorities are only required to record M, A, B or C Roads as part of the National Street Gazetteer and therefore any details beyond this information isn’t available consistently in FindMyStreet.
How FindMyStreet presents classification

Local highway authorities record classification at junction to junction level, however FindMyStreet presents information at a full street level. To deal with this in, streets may be displayed as a mix of solid and dashed lines to help highlight where there are mixed classifications.

Where all sections of a street have the same classification, the full geometry is returned as a solid bold red line.

Where a street has more than one classification, or is only part classified, then the geometry is returned as a bold line for the section selected, and a dashed-red line for sections classified differently. Selecting the dashed line will provide detail of that classification.

Where a street may be open, there may still have access restriction. This identifies whether a street is “under construction” or “open”. Note a street that is “open” may still have temporary restriction on it.

You can report this using the red "Report Feedback" tab on the right-hand side of the web page, Please provide as much detail as possible, as this will help us investigate the issue more thoroughly and aid communication with the respective local highway authority if needed. We aim to get back to you within 28 days.

Most authority data is shown in FMS, however as the legal record for classification sits outside of the NSG, some authorities have either not yet included the information in the gazetteer or offer alternative services that uses the formal legal records. These authorities may have decided that they do not want any classification data published on FMS.

If there is no classification for the authority you are looking at, please contact the Local Highways authority directly.

The current zoom level is the maximum zoom that the OS licensing permits us to provide.

This is not the intended purpose of FindMyStreet. More information on more layers such as these can be found at https://datavia.geoplace.co.uk/

FMS is not for Commercial use. The purpose of FindMyStreet is to support local highway authorities in meeting their Highways Act Section 36 (6) obligation in providing a list of publicly maintainable streets to public, therefore reducing the burden on authorities to create this individually. The NSG is available as an API for use on a commercial basis to Utilities, Contractors and Local Authorities. For more details see our DataVia API datavia.geoplace.co.uk or contact Tamsin.fulton@geoplace.co.uk

Our site colours have been tested for contrast and are DDA compliant. https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/