Underpinning in house processes and public service delivery

Having committed to the creation of its LLPG as early as 2000, the benefits made over the last six years are apparent. As far back as 2002, it was decided that the LLPG should become the primary property database for the council and software was installed in order to facilitate direct links between the LLPG and a number of the authority’s outward facing services. During this time there was an LLPG steering group, and a gazetteer team has handled its continuous improvement supported by ICT and GIS professionals.

An intranet GIS application branded ‘maps@stockton’ has provided up to 8,000 users with access to the LLPG, mapping and aerial photography plus other spatial data. The address search facility allows users to search for an address, view the entry along with the UPRN and see the location either on a map or an aerial photograph. Users are also able to see what council assets and services are delivered in that area. These include; wards, parishes and polling stations, local representation, schools and admission zones, land ownership and the adoptive status of the highway. Any problems encountered due to missing addresses or inaccurate locations can be reported back to the gazetteer team.

Key functionality has been extended to the council’s public facing website in a direct response to the e-government priority outcomes. As all the searches are address based, without a high quality address gazetteer this would have not have been possible.

The following facilities directly address ODPM outcomes and rely on the LLPG.

• Online education facility showing schools on maps and admission zones.
• A separate but linked site, SEAL (Stockton Events and Activities List) to provide details of all activities in the area regardless of who delivers them.
• Maps@stockton provides the public with access to maps and property related data.
• Maps@stockton provides a GIS based presentation of road works in the local area which is updated daily.
• The council’s CRM uses the LLPG to support its processes.

Outcomes

Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council has taken huge strides with its LLPG, opening it up to council staff through its intranet and to the public via its website. Having the gazetteer also means staff are looking at their data more closely and finding errors and omissions in their data as they are comparing it to the accurate data in the gazetteer. Accuracy of the gazetteer is now a one stop shop that staff check and act on without making lots of enquiries to check properties out, which was the previous approach. The corporate LLPG has resolved anomalies between alternative valid addresses. Analysis of spatial information is now more accurate, such as the count of properties within a given administrative area.

Interfaces have been created for direct connection with key back office systems and where this has proved impractical, exports of the gazetteer have been loaded into those systems. Update procedures and update intervals for these systems have been agreed and formalised by simple service level agreements. Without the LLPG, maps@stockton would not have been possible. The LLPG has proven to be a reliable resource on which to drive forward other major corporate projects such as the CRM.

Key benefits

• The LLPG has made a major impact on e-government priority outcomes, which served as a focus to the project and illustrated to the council as a whole the relevance of a single, high quality address database.
• Confidence in the LLPG is high, the result of six years of sustained effort in managing resources and a constant striving for improvement.
• The LLPG is the council’s central address database, the key enabler to the council’s CRM, intranet GIS and service access via the public website.
• The council’s has been awarded a 4-star CPA rating (Audit Commission’s Comprehensive Performance Assessment). It has achieved ISO 9001:2000 certification and met the Charter Mark standard for Customer Service Excellence.