Share
Stephen Black from Sunderland City Council has won the 2022 Peer Award at the 16th annual GeoPlace conference, which took place online on 10th and 11th May 2022.
GeoPlace’s Peer Award recognises the contributions and outstanding achievements of Custodians maintaining Address and Street data in England and Wales.
Stephen Black is Chair of the North East Regional Street Custodian Group and was nominated by several Street Custodians. It’s clear, Stephen’s leadership has been instrumental in helping the council’s Custodians to achieve the highest quality standards. However, Stephen’s work extends beyond simple support.
Stephen has demonstrated the passion to communicate the value of Custodians’ work, and the vision to see how the council can benefit. Pro-active in every regard, Stephen has worked with colleagues inside the organisation and externally, with partners and stakeholders of all kinds, to have a long-lasting positive effect on the region. He looks to the future, consistently going above and beyond his own remit, and has had a profound impact on the entire gazetteer community.
In presenting the Award, Nick Chapallaz, GeoPlace’s Managing Director said: “Every year, it gives us immense pleasure to highlight the outstanding work that's being done by Street and Address Custodians across England and Wales. Stephen exemplifies the impact that individuals can have across the gazetteer community. His knowledge and leadership promotes excellence across the North East region and his enthusiasm, solid advice and genuine passion shines through. The streets community is all the richer for having him in it. Well done Stephen.”
Notes:
GeoPlace’s Exemplar Awards
The Awards highlight Custodians' roles within their authorities and enable their work to be more widely promoted to all parts of the authority. They allow the many services that use address and street data to see the high standard of the data is externally recognised. From radical transformation initiatives saving millions of pounds for local authorities, to smaller projects improving data management by using the local address and street gazetteers in innovative ways, almost every aspect of local government business is underpinned by high quality address and street data.
GeoPlace's awards highlight the Street and Addressing Custodians' work helping to curate and maintain that data. Promoting their work helps to highlight the importance of their role, and the potential for this data to deliver ever-more efficient and effective services for their communities.
About GeoPlace
GeoPlace LLP is a public sector limited liability partnership between the Local Government Association (LGA) and Ordnance Survey.
GeoPlace is a world class expert in address and street information management, working internationally as well as in the UK to help our partners and customers maximise the value of their spatial information for better decision making.
GeoPlace maintains a national infrastructure that supports the address and street information needs of the public and private sectors. Its work relies heavily on close working relationships with every local authority in England and Wales. This relationship has been developed over 15 years, to build the National Address Gazetteer infrastructure and National Street Gazetteer. Ordnance Survey develops the range of AddressBase products from the National Address Gazetteer and OS MasterMap Highways Network from the NSG. Both datasets underpin efficient and effective services, bringing direct service delivery benefits to users.
The Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) and the Unique Street Reference Number (USRN) are the unique identifiers for every addressable location and street in Great Britain. They are created by local authorities who have the statutory authority to name and number every street and property and Ordnance Survey who identify objects on the landscape which may otherwise not attract an address.
These unique reference numbers link datasets together and share information with other organisations who also use them. They provide a comprehensive, complete and consistent identifier throughout a property's life cycle â from planning permission or street naming through to demolition.
