§ Mr. Michael Morrisasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether county designations prior to the Local Government Act 1972 are now completely defunct, or whether they still remain on official designations and operative areas for postal purposes.
§ Mr. OakesThe new pattern of counties set out in the Local Government Act 1972 is now definitive for statutory purposes. But for other purposes—county cricket, for instance—people are entirely free to retain the former county boundaries and names if they so wish. Postal addresses are routing instructions, not geographical descriptions, and the extent to which the new county names are being adopted for mail has been the subject of advice issued by the Post Office.