National Land & Property Gazetteer & National Street Gazetteer Exemplar Awards Winners

The Awards recognise the innovation, commitment and achievement of the local authority community, including the police and fire authorities in the creation, maintenance and utilisation of the NLPG and NSG.

This year the awards ceremony took place at The International Convention Centre in Birmingham as part of the NLPG and NSG - Underpinning Transformational Government conference, which was attended by over 350 delegates from all over England and Wales.

The conference included a number of significant presentations including demonstrations of the role of the NLPG in the day-to-day operations of the British Transport Police, and of the NSG in relation to the work of Network Rail.

The NLPG and NSG are two key initiatives to improve efficiency and service delivery. The sharing of accurate address information across local government departments, emergency services, national and regional government is a vital component in the drive to facilitate and improve efficiency and service delivery. John Hayes, Director of IDeA, presented the Awards and enthused about the innovation demonstrated in the entries for this year's Awards.

The awards demonstrated that accurate and reliable locational information really is at the heart of delivering the government's Transformational Government agenda. Through the awards process, local authorities showed how they are using the gazetteers for projects ranging from:avoidable contact

flood risk analysis and prevention

targeting of resources to areas of social deprivation

promoting energy efficiency

mapping and monitoring borough migration

investigation of fraudulent benefit claims CRM partnerships

crime and disorder reduction

street scene services

as a unifying tool for local government reorganisation

national concessionary bus pass schemes

âFit Britain'

recycling and waste management

preparations for FiReControl

safeguarding wildlife and ancient monuments

management of street works

enforcement of the Environmental protection Act.

The Exemplar Award categories and winners

National Land and Property Gazetteer

National Street Gazetteer

NLPG and NSG

Michael Nicholson, Managing Director of Intelligent Addressing, said:

"The winners of the 2008 NLPG and NSG Exemplar Awards demonstrate just how far NLPG and NSG initiatives have progressed in the last few years. In 2007 we saw the NLPG adopted by the FiRE Control Project and in 2008 it was announced that it would support CORE (Co-ordinated Online Record of Electors). The hard work and professionalism of those working in local authorities in creating both the NLPG and NSG over the last eight years continues to bear fruit and encourage further innovation."

Steve Brandwood, GI Programme Manager for the IDeA said:

"The NLPG and NSG initiatives continue to prosper and gain wider recognition and we are delighted to support the Exemplar Awards, which highlight innovation and best practice and reward their success. The Awards recognise the hard work and vision of those working within local authorities to bring about further business process transformation. They reward success and encourage others to learn by their example, to improve efficiency and service provision across the country for the benefit of all citizens."

Winner - NLPG âMost creative use' - Dartford Borough Council

The council used the NLPG to gather and co-ordinate information from various sources about the energy efficiency of properties within the Dartford area. This formed part of the Council's Sustainable Homes Energy Strategy, which aims to conserve energy and reduce emissions by improving current housing stock, promoting energy efficiency and targeting grants to disadvantaged groups. Having all the information in one database with one reference number enabled the council to highlight those properties where no data was available, to estimate the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) rating of those properties and to target improvements more effectively.

Winner - NLPG âBest business process transformation' - South Tyneside Council

Making the most of Council held information to transform service delivery has been central to South Tyneside Council since 2004 and this is demonstrated particularly well through the continued evolution of its website. Substantial savings and efficiencies and improved service delivery have been achieved through N14 âAvoidable Contact' and email alerts along with do it online and self-serve opportunities. The website can now pull data from virtually any back office system thanks to its use of the NLPG, while costs have been controlled through the use of âOpen Source' technologies.

Winner - NLPG âBest use of NLPG data by a partner' - Nottingham City Council with the Environment Agency and Nottingham Regeneration Limited

The River Leen and Day Brook Strategic Flood Risk Assessment is a partnership project aimed at informing land use planning decisions with regard to flood risk and regeneration in and around an area that was once heavily used by water-intensive and highly polluting industries. The NLPG was used to inform the number and nature of properties within the flood risk areas so that better informed decisions and communication strategies could be produced.

Winner - NSG âBest streetworks application' - London Borough of Camden

There are currently about 14,000 holes dug in the road every year in Camden; utility companies are responsible for most of these. The Council has introduced an integrated technology system to capture this information electronically and combine it with information about its own road works, temporary road closures and applications for skip, crane and scaffold licences. It has opened this information up to the public through a world-class web facility.

The improvements mean that residents wishing to report any kind of highway problem - from a pot-hole to a broken street light - can now do so online. This information is then automatically fed into a database, giving the council the ability to control and monitor the response. An engineer can authorise the work online, which generates a works order sent electronically to a contactor. As a result the Council has drastically transformed the service for customers and has significantly improved back office efficiency. The NSG is the enabling technology behind this groundbreaking application.

Winner - NSG âMost innovative use of Additional Street Data' - Kent Highways Services Alliance

Kent Highway Services Alliance, in partnership with Kent Wildlife Trust, Kent Heritage Conservation and street works promoters. In this application the NSG's ASD facility is being used to register and protect Kent's wildlife and ancient monuments from streetworks activity. The system built by the Alliance makes it easy to collect, update and display ASD on website maps and communicate messages appropriate to the risk. This includes instructions for streetworks promoters to contact environmental experts directly prior to any visits to site. The results an effective use of technology to protect endangered wildlife and cultural heritage.

Best integration of the NLPG and the NSG - London Borough of Haringey

A new system developed by Haringey Council utilising the NLPG and the NSG provides members of the public with the ability to 'pin-point' the location of a reported problem on to an online Ordnance Survey map. Property based searches use the NLPG whilst Highways based searches use the NSG, although these distinctions remain completely hidden from the user who can now locate and report problems with ease. Back office systems receive data automatically, eliminating the need for data entry by admin staff.

The increased use of online form enquiries means less telephone calls handled by admin staff, saving time and resources, which can be reallocated as required. The use of technical skills within the organisation means that this solution had been deployed at no extra cost to the IT services department.

20th October 2008

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.

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