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Devon was presented with the 2007 National Street Gazetteer (NSG) Best Gazetteer Integration together with the NSG Best Business Integration at an awards ceremony and conference "Underpinning Transformational Government" in Leicester earlier this month. The two awards were jointly presented by Intelligent Addressing and the Improvement and Development Agency at the event which was attended by both local and central government representatives, officers from the blue light services and other interested parties.
The National Street Gazetteer is an ambitious project to create a master street map and database of related assets and features for the whole of England and Wales. Devon, as one of the country's largest counties with over 12,820 km of streets; the largest local authority road network, 4,700 km of Public Rights of Way plus millions of associated assets and features such as street lights and grassed areas is facing the increasingly challenging task of improving the quality of their maintenance performance against decreasing budgets.
Michael Nicholson, Managing Director of Intelligent Addressing, who presented both awards commented, "Devon has faced a great challenge in not only creating their street gazetteer but also implementing it within their day to day working practices to obtain a real return on investment." He continued, "They have demonstrated that liaison with District Councils is critical for success and shown how a system built on co-operation between services, hard work, investment and a drive to meet the needs of the County's collective customers can deliver tangible improvements in costs, efficiencies and working practices."
The project to create a comprehensive and complete street gazetteer was undertaken in partnership with Devon's eight District Councils to maximise the use of local knowledge in the creation of the data and also to ensure the take up by all parties of the resulting data. The data is being used by more than 600 officers throughout the county, powering Devon's Asset Management System, the District's Local Land and Property Gazetteers (NLPG) and Devon's Customer Service System. The scale of the project becomes apparent when mobile working, web applications and telephone card based wireless networking are considered. Devon also collected the award for National Street Gazetteer (NSG) Best Performing Region on behalf of the South West.
17th October 2007
Notes to Editors
The NLPG was initiated in 1999 to become the master address dataset for England and Wales and the central hub for the 376 address creating Local Authorities and their Local Land and Property Gazetteers (LLPGs). Based on unique property reference numbers (UPRNs) the underlying principle of these gazetteers is to provide a single definitive ad dress database for all departments and systems across a local authority in order to cut costs, improve efficiency and service delivery.
The dataset enables various local authority departments - from revenue collection and environmental health, to social security, the electoral roll and education - to now offer true âjoined up' government. The benefits also go beyond service delivery. Fraud prevention, tax collection and disaster planning all benefit from the fact that each property is given a âUnique Property Reference Number' which transcends (property) numbers, names, descriptions (such as âThe Nursing Home') and postcodes. UPRNs are assigned for the full life of the plot and/or building.
The project was given a significant boost in 2005 with the introduction of the Mapping Services Agreement, which committed all Local Authorities to bringing their gazetteers up to standard and to start submitting regular updates to the NLPG hub for use by national and regional organisations. Collaboration with DNA-S (Definitive National Addressing for Scotland) who use the same BS7666 processes and database schemas means that a British addressing infrastructure is now a reality.
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.
Intelligent Addressing contact:
Gayle Gander, Head of Marketing | 0207 747 3500 | E-mail: [email protected] | www.intelligent-addressing.co.uk, www.thensg.org.uk, www.nlpg.org.uk
Editorial enquiries and colour separation requests:
William Allbrook | T: 01666 826641 | F: 01666 824668
The Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) The IDeA works in partnership with all councils, to enhance the performance of the best, accelerate the speed of improvement of the rest, and develop the sector as a whole. IDeA has brokered the Mapping Services Agreement (MSA) with Intelligent Addressing to develop the NLPG and NSG, through the Local Government Information House (LGIH), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Agency.
Working in partnership with the local government community developing national infrastructure projects that enable councils to deliver local services more effectively, LGIH acts as an intermediary between the public and the private sector enabling it to negotiate with private companies on behalf of local authorities in order to provide key parts of a technical infrastructure for improved service delivery.
The NLPG is a joint venture between the Information House and Intelligent Addressing Limited.
IDeA contacts:
Steve Brandwood, Programme Manager | 020 7296 6615 | Email: [email protected] | www.idea.gov.uk
Media: Paul Bailey | 020 7296 6529
