National Land and Property Gazetteer

National Land and Property Gazetteer

Rapid progress on developing a computerized National Land and Property Gazetteer for Britain was revealed on 17 July 1998, by the two organizations spearheading the project Ordnance Survey, Britain's national mapping agency, and the Local Government Management Board (LGMB).

At the conference of the FIG (Fédération International des Géometres) in Brighton they announced that surveyors' work is now complete on the crucial first step in the creation of a definitive national register gazetteer of streets, land and property.

They have revealed they have reached agreement on the development of the first phase which is the creation of the National Street Gazetteer, which will combine local gazetteers held by all highway authorities to form a national gazetteer including every road in Britain.

The first version of the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) has been created by drawing key information from Ordnance Survey's digital ROADS and ADDRESS databases, and by adding new information such as a unique property reference number to each building. This pinpoints and numbers around 26 million properties across England, Wales and Scotland.

As the second phase develops, land areas without addresses will be added to the database, building up to a comprehensive gazetteer of all land and property in the country created to a common British Standard (BS 7666). The links with local authorities and other key bodies will ensure the information within it is definitive.

"Having reached these crucial milestones, we are now inviting expressions of interest from organisations in both the public and private sectors who want to get involved as partners in taking the National Land and Property Gazetteer project forward",says Tony Black, Director of Marketing at Ordnance Survey.

"Already LGMB and ourselves are working closely with bodies such as HM Land Registry, the Valuation Office and Registers of Scotland. But the framework we are creating will provide the foundations for hundreds of uses, and there are many private-sector companies who could add value to it to provide products of great benefit to many markets.

"We want them to express interest now so that as the project accelerates we are providing the vital core data which will be of maximum use to them."

The gazetteer of land,property and streets is being developed following the signing of a "Memorandum of understanding" between the Local Government Association, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, the Local Govemment Information House Limited and Ordnance Survey. The memorandum sets out the basis by which local government can work in partnership with Ordnance Survey to create and manage nationally integrated spatial information.

The partnership recognises local authorities' role as a key source of information and uses the recently created Information House to allow local authorities to act collectively. The partnership also recognises Ordnance Survey's unique position in the management,marketing and exploitation of public sector data.

Dr Andrew Lamer, of the LGMB, says: "We believe Ordnance Survey is the most appropriate body to be national custodian of our data and to take these initiatives forward with us. We considered several alternative partners, but recognise that Ordnance Survey has a long and distinguished mapping record, and in recent years it has also become a world leader in digital mapping and geographical information. The service provider needs to have a variety of spatial information management skills, from version management of complex spatial data sets, to the management of commercial relationships and date licensing. That combination means they are extremely well placed to help us both develop and market local authority information".

The two parties have set out to combine their vast resources and know-how to create the gazetteer, which is expected to bring significant benefits to the public and business through,for example, speeding up the handling of property and land transactions.

The gazetteer will also,for the first time in Britain, create a framework for identifying and mapping out land uses on a national basis.

The National Land and Property Gazetteer is probably the single biggest contribution ever to deliver a consistent standard across the whole public sector and fully supports the major national agendas of Government Direct and Better Government.

Local authorities and Ordnance Survey have long had a close working relationship through a national service level agreement allowing councils to use Ordnance Survey's most detailed mapping and other computer data in their day-to-day work.

And local authorities also provide much information to the mapping agency to help keep maps up-to-date. It is hoped these arrangements will be further improved in the future as the development of national gazetteers to a common British Standard will allow far better and swifter co-ordination and integration of new information.

One of the major uses of the National Street Gazetteer (NSG) will be the more effective co-ordination of road works by highway authorities, utility companies and similar bodies to minimise traffic disruption. When complete, it will identify the precise whereabouts and details of almost a million roads along with alleyways and other public rights of way.

The NSG will also contain the definitive name and unique reference number of each highway, and have"hooks" on which other associated information can be recorded ­ for example, details of one-way streets, any alternative road names and who is responsible for maintenance.

Tony Black pays tribute to the work of the LGMB in working with the mapping agency to develop the new gazetteers. "We have long shared each other's information, but thanks to our formal agreement on working together we will be able to open up many new opportunities, not least of which is the National Land and Property Gazetteer."

Ordnance Survey has a Web Site at www.ordsvy.gov.uk for more information.