The law requires municipalities, including the smallest, to give a name to all their streets and numbers to houses from June 2024. Many of them are hard at work at the moment, like in Haute-Vienne.
Regularly, the Oradour-Sur-Vayre postman is questioned by residents on the problem of street numbering. When he goes on vacation, it can happen that his replacements have difficulty finding the houses to deliver the mail, despite the little notebook in which he writes everything down, and which is so precious to him.
According to Anthony Chabant, “It’s difficult, when houses are a little away from the main road. We have logical odd and even numbers. And all of a sudden, we have a house that is a little off. And there , we can end up with a number that does not correspond to a logical sequence at all.
The town hall of Oradour-Sur-Vayre is one of the 33 Haut-Viennoise communes in which the numbering is still in progress.
Parliament passed the 3DS law on February 8, 2023. It requires municipalities, including those with fewer than 2,000 inhabitants, to name and number their roads.
A few months ago, Chief Pierre Fournier, gendarme in Oradour-Sur-Vayre, was sent near the small hamlet of Grateloube, in the commune of Champagnac-la-rivière. A resident was alerted to the presence of thieves in his home using a camera.
As the addressing was not precise enough, the police were unable to do anything:“We were given an address. We quickly went to the scene since it was in progress. But when we got here, no number matched. We ended up finding it, but the thieves had already left.”
When the firefighters or SAMU intervene for a life-threatening emergency, inaccurate street numbering can obviously have tragic consequences.
The 3DS law also makes it easier to deliver packages, which is booming due to online commerce. And then it will also be very useful for the deployment of fiber.
The commune of Meuzac has already revised its entire numbering. She also gave a name to all her streets. The residents had a say in the choice of names, and it all cost 25,000 euros.
The association of the friends of Father Castor being based in the village, certain streets refer to the albums which have helped explain life to children aged 1 to 10 since 1931, hence, for example, the Roule Galette route.
Always more original, the mayor of Meuzac, who is a veteran of the Post Office, found it wise to introduce meter numbering. Thus, number 3791 route du Kaolin is located 3791 meters from the start of the route. According to Guy Montet, “This system is practical. The houses are thus easy to find. And then it avoids bis, ter and quaters in areas where the houses touch.”
In April 2024 in Haute-Vienne, 116 municipalities were supported by post for their addressing, including Meuzac. 34 municipalities have carried out this addressing alone.
45 do not yet have any certified addressing.
