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The timely and targeted response of Hull City Council to a major incident of flooding which occurred in late June has been acknowledged with the presentation of a prestigious national award.
The 2007 Exemplar Award for National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) Most Creative Use recognised the essential role of the Council's centralised address resource in monitoring the flood situation, managing the Council's emergency response and subsequent clear up. The award was jointly presented by Intelligent Addressing and the Improvement and Development Agency at a one-day conference and award ceremony held on the 17th October 2007 in Leicester.
Hull City Council demonstrated, in extreme conditions, the value to a Local Authority of a fully integrated address resource. The Council sees its Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) and Local Street Gazetteer (LSG) as fundamental for improvements in services to citizens and value for money and as such has been committed to embedding unique property and street reference numbers within core front office systems such as the Council's Customer Relationship Management system. Without this infrastructure, built around the centralised address resource, the Council would not have been able to respond to the flood event and its aftermath as it did.
"The use of the integrated address information gave us instant access to the property level information we needed. This enabled a far speedier response to exceptional demand for resources and more effective targeting of those resources," said Richard Liversedge, Shared Services Head of ICT and E Government. He continued "The ongoing use of this information has facilitated the clear up operation and has enabled us to work effectively with all interested parties to continue to aid our citizens to best effect."
Michael Nicholson, Managing Director of Intelligent Addressing, who presented the award, commented, "This was an unusual project in so far as there was no business case or planned schedule for these activities. Every response was necessity driven and time was of the essence." He continued "Hull City Council through its use of the LLPG and NSG in extreme conditions such as those experienced this summer has proven beyond doubt the fundamental importance of this data for service delivery in every imaginable scenario."
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 address 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 the 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
