New age ideas see UK streets being renamed as Karma Way or Yoga Way - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Goodbye Acacia Avenue, welcome to Eco Way, Euro Close and Sustainability Way-these are just changed names of some streets in Britain, which are increasingly being chosen to reflect councils' interests in the environment, health and safety, and diversity, revealed a survey. "New age" ideas are also influencing the naming of roads such as Karma Way or Yoga Way. Other streets are being given names, which reflect Britain's increasingly multicultural society. According to experts, local authorities were doing the same thing the Romans did 2,000 years- using names, which reflected the nature of society around them. "Street names reflect modern culture and society and preoccupations. They now also show a worldwide influence," the Telegraph quoted Dr David Green, a geographer from King's College London, as saying. Other new streets with an environmental theme include Eco Way, in Doncaster, and Sustainability Way, in Leyland, Lancashire. There also exists a Kyoto Walk and Kyoto Terrace, in Havant, Hampshire, which feature environmentally friendly homes and were named after the Japanese city where an international treaty on climate change was agreed. Council officials in Poole renamed Salamander Road as Safety Drive, after a new fire station was built on it, reflecting an interest in health and safety, Samsara Road, in Bromsgrove, and Karma Way, in Harrow, north London, both use phrases from Indian religions, dealing with concepts of reincarnation and cause and effect, respectively, which have become popular elements of "new age" western thinking. Then there is Yoga Way, in Sutton, south London. In Brent, however, councillors chose the financial over the spiritual, calling one street Euro Close. Among the new names, which reflect Britain's multicultural society, are Masjid Lane, in Tower Hamlets, east London, which uses the Arabic term for mosque. A street is called Jinnah Close, after Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of the modern state of Pakistan. Other recently named addresses reflect African influences, such as Ashanti Mews, in Hackney, named after a major ethnic group and area of Ghana. Local authorities have responsibility for the creation of street names, and very often they will take suggestions from developers or the public. The names uncovered by the survey of local councils, carried out by The Sunday telegraph, are all for streets or developments created within the last ten years.