Cllr Richard Young has urged residents in Totton, Hythe, Marchwood and Fawley to remove ‘Southampton’ from their addresses and instead use ‘New Forest’.
The Reform councillor for Marchwood and Eling said this is a way to accurately describe the area’s identity, something he is keen to protect.
It comes after the news that the Waterside area of the district will join the new unitary authority with Southampton, Eastleigh, and parts of Test Valley in 2028.
Totton South councillor, Caroline Rackham, said she agrees that Southampton should not be on people’s addresses.
The Liberal Democrat said: “I think we need to do two things here – make sure we maintain our identity and character by keeping the New Forest and Waterside name, but we also need to work with the new authority to help them understand why this is important to so many residents.”
But fellow Lib Dem councillor David Harrison, who also represents Totton South, said the issue “is not exactly a new one” and described it as an “underlying grumble”.
He said: “I would suggest that it is better not to be distracted by postal addresses, post codes or even flags, but to ensure we get the best legal advice to enable us to challenge the Government decision to split the New Forest community into two”.
Cllr David Harrison
The suggestion was made on Facebook by Cllr Young on Friday, April 17.
In the post, he said residents can “push back and protect our identity” by removing Southampton from their address.
“My understanding is that Royal Mail will still deliver your post perfectly well, many rural areas already use historic or preferred names instead of the nearest large town”, he said.
Cllr Young said: “By doing this consistently on letters, parcels, online orders, and official forms, we send a clear message: We are not Southampton. We are the New Forest.”
But Cllr Harrison said he needs to be “sensible about it”, adding: “I can’t get too excited about something that the Royal Mail has been doing for decades and presumably makes their job a little more straightforward.”