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On to year letters The allocation of BF to Staffordshire and OO & WC to Essex, kept the registration system going temporarily, but a further more radical change was needed. This occurred in 1963 when year letter suffixes were introduced, i.e. the format became ABC 123A. Staffordshire had been the first authority to use three-letter combinations and the first to issue reversed combinations. The allocation of BF to it, however, "kept it going" and meant that it was not the first authority to run out of available combinations. It was therefore Middlesex who was the first authority to use year letters, AHX 1A being issued in February 1963. Between then and 1 January 1965 all local authorities started using year letters. The reason for this phased introduction was number plate manufacturers wanted time to produce sufficient letters to be able to produce plates. Some authorities were "forced" to go onto year letters as they had run out of forward and reversed combinations. Yet others did it at an arbitrary point. It is interesting to note that, although Middlesex and other authorities had "run out" of "yearless" combinations, in 1963 some small Scottish authorities were still issuing original format two-letter registrations! The slowest issuing authority, Bute, only reached SJ 2860 before going on to year letters on 1 January 1964! The allocation of BF, OO & WC in the early 1960's meant that there were now no spare marks for any new county boroughs that might be created. All the Xx codes had been allocated to London except XG (Teeside), XJ (Manchester) & XS (Paisley) (plus Northern Ireland's XI & XZ). When year letters were introduced in 1963 the London Xx codes were withdrawn so spare marks would potentially be available for any new boroughs created. The following were subsequently used: XA - Kirkcaldy (1963), XB - Coatbridge (1964), XC - Solihull (1964), XD & XE - Luton (1964) & XF - Torbay (1968). When codes were again reallocated in 1974 (we will deal with shortly), all Xx combinations were withdrawn. Year letters caused a high demand for registration of new vehicles on 1 January each year and this created problems for the motor trade and registration authorities. To minimise the problems that resulted, the "E" letter was used from only 1 January to 31 July 1967 and "F" was commenced on 1 August 1967. 1 August was to remain the changeover date for the next 30 years. The introduction of year letters with their seven-digit registrations
resulted in one change in the appearance of plates. Characters
were now 3.7" high, whereas previously they had been 3.1"
high, In January 1968 there was a further change to the appearance
of plates. Reflective plates, white at the front, black at the
rear, were made optional. From 1 January 1972 they became compulsory
for most categories of newly registered vehicles. |
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