Swords cross in postcode row

POSTAL address snobbery is alive and well in 21st century Ireland, with council officials and builders literally crossing Swords over the issue.

It emerged over the weekend that Fingal County Council was recently forced to order developers to change the address used to promote a new 500-unit housing estate in north Co Dublin knocking about 40,000 off the price of a house.

Council officials instructed Cannon Kirk builders to list the company's Waterside development as being located in Swords, rather than Malahide as indicated in original publicity material when the scheme was launched last July.

It followed criticism by buyers as well as complaints by some Malahide residents to the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland last October amid presumable concern that the town's borders appear to be spreading out in all directions.

Neutral observers claim Waterside is equidistant from Swords and Malahide with a walk to either town centre taking around 50 minutes on average.

"The development has been advertised consistently as Malahide.

"Our maps show it to be in Swords, so this has serious consequences for people who think they are buying into Malahide when they are not," one council official told The Sunday Times.

However, Cannon Kirk criticised the local authority for taking "a high-handed" approach.

The company insists that the correct postal address of the estate will be Swords Road, Malahide.