New number plates will have area code

A new system for vehicle number plates that will reveal the part of the country a car is from as well as its age was unveiled by the Government yesterday.

The first two letters of a number plate will identify the region where the vehicle was registered, and will be followed by two numbers showing the year it was bought. The region is represented by the first letter, such as "A" for Anglia and "Y" for Yorkshire, and the second letter will pinpoint the DVLA office the car was registered at. The final three letters are random.

The numbers will continue to change twice a year, in March and September. The new system is due to be introduced in September 2001.

The Transport minister Lord Whitty said: "This is good news for motorists and good news for crime fighting. Number plates should be easy to read and easy to remember. [They] will mean that people can identifythe locality and [may be able to] help the police by remembering one or two letters or numbers."

The numbers in each new-style registration plate will show the age of the car. The second digit will show the year - for example 01 for 2001. The first digit will change each March and September, in a rotating system that will last until 2049. Personalised number plates will still be available when the new plates begin to appear in 17 months' time

The new characters will be 7mm smaller than those used on existing plates and a standard style of lettering will be enforced. Northern Ireland will retain its existing system.

Although the regional letters were chosen by public consultation last year, the changes provoked anger in Liverpool yesterday because the city's vehicles will be identified by the letter "M" - for Manchester, the closest DVLA office. The council leader, Mike Storey, said the decision was "insensitive to Liverpool and crazy".