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Listing over one million streets, the NSG is the composite street index for the whole of England and Wales. It is used by local government and those organisations that work on or around highways, as the definitive reference for co-ordinating street works and managing the road network.
Under the terms of the Mapping Services Agreement (MSA) with local government, Intelligent Addressing took over management of the NSG in Autumn 2005 and by securing the cooperation of all Highways Authorities, the programme has received a significant boost. With regular updates now being received countrywide, the currency of the NSG will continue to improve so that real time data on all highways is made available to those who need it. This could open the way for a whole host of potential value added applications such as vehicle navigation and tracking, speed limit notification, up to date street works locating, road pricing, and congestion charging
"Having introduced a new framework, reporting structure and feedback mechanism for the NSG we have now established close working relationships with each of the 172 Highways Authorities" said Nick Turner NSG Custodian, "We are getting regular updates from all the Highway Authorities in England and Wales, as well as other bodies with an interest in Highways, such as Transport for London, Network Rail and the Highways Agency, the quality of the gazetteer is improving in leaps and bounds. These improvements not only benefit the coordination of street works but also enhance the quality of the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG). Under Intelligent Addressing's custodianship, what used to take months, now takes place in a matter days or weeks and we can really begin to see the benefits and further potential of these two definitive national datasets," continued Turner.
The NSG is a government initiative to create an unambiguous referencing system, using Unique Street Reference Numbers (USRNs) with which to identify any length of highway or road in England and Wales. Set up initially to improve highway maintenance, by the New Roads and Street Works Act, the NSG enables Utility companies and local councils to coordinate and know where and when to dig their holes. Under legislation each highway authority is required to create and maintain its own local street gazetteer (LSG) and associated street data (ASD), which is then compiled into the only master index built to British Standard BS7666, for access by others via the NSG online hub, managed by Intelligent Addressing.
The Highway Authorities data contains a wealth of useful information including road length, junctions, road centre lines, and a mass of associated street data (ASD) such as vehicle width and height restrictions. Now that every Highways Authority is providing regular updates the NSG is consolidating its place as the de facto dataset underpinning the national transport infrastructure.
28 September 2006
Notes to Editors
Intelligent Addressing is a specialist private sector consultancy (an SME) employing recognised experts in addressing. It was originally set up to help develop the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) on behalf of local government and now manages the NLPG and NSG central data hubs under the terms of the Mapping Services Agreement (MSA) with local government.
NSG
Required under the New Roads and Street Works Act, the National Street Gazetteer (NSG) is a comprehensive list of over 1 million named and un-named streets, footpaths and thoroughfares, the definitive source for anyone with an interest in streets and their usage. There are over 300 organisations, utilities such as gas, water and electricity, BT, plus cable and communications companies, named as âStatutory Undertakers' approved by the Department of Transport to download this data, which conforms to the BS7666:1-2000 Standard.
Gayle Gander, Head of Marketing | T: 0207 747 3500 | E-mail: [email protected]
