Following public outreach that lead to residents overwhelmingly supporting its original name, Aberdeen Mine Road in Lower Nicola will revert back to Aberdeen Road.
While the name of the road was changed in February, it wasn’t until March, following public outcry, that the public consultation process began.
The Thompson Nicola Regional District (TNRD) and provincial Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) recently issued a release in joint support of feedback from residents of Aberdeen Road, after requesting input from residents upset by the sudden change. According to the TNRD, residents overwhelmingly supported maintaining the Aberdeen Road name.
“MOTI is responsible for road naming in TNRD communities, and its staff will now begin the administrative process of formalizing the name as Aberdeen Road, which will include re-establishing road signage,” read the release.
“Aberdeen Mine Road signage was installed in order to resolve previous geographic information issues and match the Province of BC’s historical records.”
Area residents told the Herald that they believed the change to Aberdeen Mine Road went against provincial guidelines on using colloquial names in the event of naming issues, and would have caused them to have to change the titles of their homes, their vehicle registrations, and a number of other services to reflect the new name. The TNRD said in its release that road maintenance issues in unincorporated areas such as Lower Nicola is a provincial issue.
“Within unincorporated areas of the TNRD, maintenance of all local roads and highways, including road naming and signage, is a function of the Province of BC,” noted the release.
“In fact, no regional district in B.C. has jurisdiction over road maintenance, which is a different process than in municipalities.”
While emergency services have already been alerted of the switch, the regional district said letters alerting residents of the change back to Aberdeen Road will be mailed out shortly.
For more information on the change, or other road maintenance issues in unincorporated areas, visit www.tnrd.ca/road-maintenance.
