OSM Postbox Reference Issues

• Duplicate ref values (127)
• Ref value has invalid postcode district (9)
• Ref value not in Royal Mail list (633)
• Box lies outside postal district implied by ref number (127)
• Box ref matches one thought to no longer exist (5)
• Outbound code only (37)
• Box number only (3)
• Box ref found under a non-standard key (20)
• Number found as a key value (12)
• Number of refs doesn't match number of apertures (93)
• Additional text following ref (28)
• Lowercase in outbound code (0)
• Other non-standard form for ref (83)

Duplicate ref values

A single ref value appears on more than one OSM postbox node. This may or may not be an error. In particular, two adjacent boxes can have the same postbox reference number. If you have verified that two adjecent boxes do and should have the same reference number, then I would suggest adding a note=* tag to the nodes to explain, and also a machine-readable ref:duplicates=2. Those duplicates with a consistent machine-readable tag are marked in the table below.

Ref value has invalid postcode district

The OSM postbox number (ref value) does not appear in the list of post-boxes supplied by the Royal Mail, and also appears to have an invalid postcode district as its first half. This is probably an error by the OSM mapper, but it could also be because an old collection plate still uses an old-style box number (typically two or three letters, followed by three numbers).

Ref value not in Royal Mail list

The OSM bostbox number (ref value) does not appear in the list of post-boxes supplied by the Royal Mail. This could be because of an error by the an OSM mapper, or because the Royal Mail list is erroneous or out of date.

Box lies outside postal district implied by ref number

The first half of the box number should not normally correspond to the postal district of the post box. Listed below are boxes that lie outside a simple bounding box for that district. Boxes that are with 250m of the location recorded by Royal Mail are excluded from this list.

Box ref matches one thought to no longer exist

A box in OSM has a reference number that this tool has been told no longer exists.

Outbound code only

The ref key contains only the outbound (first) part. A survey is required to obtain the number.

Box number only

The ref key contains only a number, probably corresponding to the box number. A survey is required to check this and obtain the first half of the reference.

Box ref found under a non-standard key

There is no ref=* key, but another key contains something that looks like it might be a post box number. If this is the case, the value should be moved to the ref key. Note that old_ref is commonly used for old-style references, which should be left under that key.

Number found as a key value

There is no ref=* key, and another key (other than post_box:apertures, ele, or layer) contains a number. This may be the box number. If it looks like it is, then this should be combined with the outbound part-code part, and moved to a ref key.

Number of refs doesn't match number of apertures

Multiple-aperture boxes often have a separate reference number for each aperture. In this case, a single OSM node should have multiple semi-colon separated ref values, and an appropriate post_box:apertures tag. Where multiple ref values refer to physically seperate boxes, it would be better if there was one node for each box. This table lists nodes with multiple ref values, without a consistent post_box:apertures tag

Additional text following ref

There is some additional text following what looks like a valid reference number. This could be an error, or it could be a legitiate way of distingushing multiple phyiscal boxes that share the same reference number. For multiple reference numbers on the same box, the two numbers should be seperated by a semi-colon, with no additional spaces around it (e.g. ref=AB12 151;AB12 152). An appropriate post_box:apertures=* tag should also be added.