Improvements in rural Wales

Isle of Anglesey County Council has improved its Local Street Gazetteer over the last year, winning not only the most improved gazetteer in England and Wales but also best in Wales. Anglesey presents its own particular problems. Being largely rural, it boasts over 39,500 UPRNs, 2,005 USRNs and has a population of nearly 70,000.

Much of the improvement has come about through working projects. Initially, this came through raising match rates with Council Tax and National NonDomestic Rates (NNDR). More recently, the council made extra resources available to focus on meeting the Ministry of Justice’s deadline for matching the NLPG to the Electoral Register. Another work stream has focused on preparation for the next Census. Using common software for both the NSG and the NLPG has its advantages. Property matching quite often reveals buildings which are not attached to a street, and it is possible to see this in the map based software used by the Council. When no centre line is visible, a street is missing!

As Lee Evans, gazetteer custodian of both Anglesey’s LLPG and LSG, says, “If you focus on property matching, the street data will automatically improve and it certainly helps if you are using the same software to manage both. The gazetteers are being worked on constantly and, it does mean that there is consistency in the creation and updating of records.”