+-----------------------+

| February 2009 Edition |

+-----------------------+

General:

1. Pan London Admissions Project Takes NLPG Licence

2. NLPG Commercial Sales
3. PoI Task Force Report
4. Conservatives Call for More Open Access to Public Data
5. Govt Minister Calls for Greater Efficiency from Councils
6. Staffs First County with NLPG based Information System
7. Annual Exemplar Awards
8. ERO Expert Panel
9. Free Validation for the CORE Project
10. CORE Matching
11. Unitary Boundary Deadline Delayed
12. Inspire
13. Defra UK SDI Spring Workshop Programme
14. National datasets at GSDI 11
15. LB Harrow is Looking for an LLPG Assistant
16. Luton BC is Seeking a Geospatial Technician
17. Spelthorne is Looking for a System Support & Maintenance
Officer

NLPG:

1. NLPG Technical Enhancements

2. NLPG Health Check Exceptions

NSG:

1. NSG Technical Enhancements

2. NSG Uploads
3. DTF7.1
4. EToN 5
5. NSG Ftp
6. Regional Meetings

-----[articles]-----

[General]
**1. Pan London Admissions Project Takes NLPG Licence**
The London Borough of Brent has recently facilitated an England
wide NLPG provision
for the e-Admissions system. This has been arranged with Brent
acting as a lead
body and providing a contractor licence for usage of the NLPG.
You can find out
 more about the project at [1]www.eadmissions.org.uk. Whilst the
service is limited
to School Admissions in the London area, England wide data will
be used to identify
children's addresses if those children are applying from outside
London.

[1] http://www.eadmissions.org.uk

**2. NLPG Commercial Sales**

A new wiki has been created on the MSA and Intelligent
Addressing [1]Community of
Practice sites detailing all commercial sales of the NLPG to
date. This is to
let you know who you are able to share NLPG data/derived data
with. This will be
kept up to date on both sites.

NLPG pricing details can be found [2]here. The largest

proportion of this price
is returned to Ordnance Survey for the use of Address Point
derived data in the
historic creation of the gazetteer. The remaining revenue is
split between local
government and Intelligent Addressing for their investment in
the infrastructure
of the gazetteer. LGIH will be consulting on the use of the
revenue collected for
local government as it establishes the level of sales over the
2009/10 financial
year.

If you know of other similar organisations which would benefit

from an annual licence
to the NLPG, for your and/or their business benefit, please put
them in touch with
Nick Turner, at Intelligent Addressing, email
[3]nturner@intelligent-addressing.co.uk,
tel 020 7747 3500.

The following organisations currently have annual NLPG licence:

Mid Essex Primary Care Trust: East of England GOR
GB Group on behalf of BBC TV Licensing: England Wales data

[1] http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/welcome.do
[2] http://www.iahub.net/docs/1209571318788.pdf
[3] mailto:nturner@intelligent-addressing.co.uk

**3. PoI Task Force Report**

Richard Allan, [1]Power of Information Task Force Chair, has
said that the beta
version of the Task force Report had attracted several hundred
comments which they
 have been working through, as they drafted the final version,
which they planned
to make public in the final week of February.

"Perhaps not surprisingly the section on geospatial data has

attracted the most
discussion with over 30 comments registered", commented Mr
Allan. "A number of
these have asked for more emphasis to be placed on access to
address and postcode
data and others have picked up the issue of ‘derived data’. On
the derived data
issue the guidance sent to local authorities about the
incompatibility of OS and
Google Maps licenses is very instructive. This reinforces
strongly the view that
there is a problem we must urgently address if a public body
cannot plot the location
of public services on a map and then display this on commonly
used platforms like
Google Maps", he added.

APPSI welcomed the opportunity to respond to the consultation

report. Their [2]report
was a majority report not agreed by all members. The Trading
Fund representative
on the Panel was not able to agree with or support their
submission.

[1] http://powerofinformation.wordpress.com/
[2] http://www.appsi.gov.uk/ct.ashx?id=c0573762-b319-4d21-8b99-
7068e163faf8&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.appsi.gov.uk%2fcontent%2fbinary
%2f16.02.09-APPSI-Response-to-Draft-POI-Taskforce-Report.pdf

**4. Conservatives Call for More Open Access to Public Data**

At the Free Our Data debate - see [1]debate report - hosted by
the Policy Exchange
on February 10th Adam Afriyie, the Conservative shadow skills
Minister, called
on the government to publish the Trading Fund Assessment in
order to "ensure that
government data policies help rather than hinder economic
growth". There were
around 50 attendees at the meeting and in the discussion session
it was clear that
delegates felt that the current environment was unsustainable
and detracting from
new and innovative products and service being developed.

The panel consisted of Charles Arthur (Guardian), Ed Parsons

(Google), Adam Afriyie
(MP), Shane O'Neil (APPSI) and Steven Feldman (consultant). It
was clear that the
 debate has moved on considerably and with increasing pace over
the past year. All
the panel members to a greater or lesser extent said that the
current restrictions
on access to PSI in general and OS's data in particular, have to
be changed.

[1] http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/

**5. Govt Minister Calls for Greater Efficiency from Councils**

In the current economy local authorities need to deliver vital
services even more
efficiently - and the [1]Roots Review has shown millions more
can be saved through
improved procurement, according to John Healey the Local
Government Minister.

The Review makes a series of recommendations to help councils

generate more efficient
procurement processes. In particular it identifies strengthened
Regional Improvement
and Efficiency Partnerships (RIEPs) as a key way to improve
practical procurement
advice and the 'best buy' information available.

[1]
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/rootsre
view

**6. Staffs First County with NLPG based Information System**

The new system supporting internal processes and decision making
across all tiers
of the County has been introduced by Staffs CC. The new [1]web
based public information
and service delivery system is the first of its kind for a
County using the intelligence
offered by the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG).

See full story [2]here.

[1] http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/localview/
[2] http://www.iahub.net/docs/1235391098189.pdf

**7. Annual Exemplar Awards**

Final details for the NLPG and NSG Exemplar Awards which are to
be held on November
25-26th 2009 at Victoria Park Plaza, London, are still being
organised, but if you
are interested in exhibiting at this event, (which was sold out
last year) or would
like further details, please email [1]Gayle Gander, Head of
Marketing, at Intelligent
Addressing.
 The NLPG and NSG Exemplar Awards are held annually to celebrate
the hard work of
local authorities in maintaining the NLPG and NSG to such high
standards, and to
showcase the benefits that can be gained by sharing this
information. The event
is free to all signatories of the Mapping Services Agreement
(MSA).

Full details of the event will be available online in the coming

months at [2]www.thensg.org.uk
and [3]www.nlpg.org.uk.

[1] mailto:ggander@intelligent-addressing.co.uk
[2] http://www.thensg.org.uk
[3] http://www.nlpg.org.uk

**8. ERO Expert Panel**

Following on from the user requirements workshops, the MoJ have
established an ERO
expert panel to help them follow up any outstanding issues and
queries, and to provide
feedback on the CORE service model as this develops. The first
expert panel meeting
was held on January 21st and provided the CORE team the chance
to follow up on outstanding
concerns and queries and the EROs who attended the opportunity
to voice their feedback
and raise any prevalent issues.

The panel also provided valuable insights that have helped

develop policy on the
CORE Keeper. The expert panel members are now formally reviewing
the new CORE service
model and other relevant documentation, which represents the new
system requirements.
Once the revised draft of the CORE Service Model is agreed, the
CORE Project team
will use the reviewed model as the basis for the high level
statement of requirements,
which is to be completed by March 2009.

The next project board meeting is planned for March, when it

will be reviewing the
statement of user requirements and cost/benefit analysis.

If you have general enquiries please contact the CORE mailbox

[1]core@gsi.justice.gov.uk

[1] mailto:core@gsi.justice.gov.uk

**9. Free Validation for the CORE Project**

 Intelligent Addressing trialled this service for the AEA AGM,
Conference and Exhibition
in Brighton on 8th to 11th February 2009. It is aimed at local
authorities who have
finished matching their Register of Electors to the LLPG and
wish to check the validity
of their work.

Having received some good results IA would now like to test a

larger sample and
we are therefore offering this service free to the first 30
local authorities that
send us data. The closing date for sending data is March 31st
2009.

The service will analyse matches between your Register of

Electors and the NLPG,
and will, amongst other tests. It will:
check that all UPRNs that are matched to RoE records exist in
the NLPG;
check whether any of the UPRNs relate to properties classified
as non-residential;
check whether any of the UPRNs relate to properties that are
historic or rejected;
check whether there are any UPRNs that are duplicated in the RoE
data;
check whether any of the UPRNs are located outside the local
authority area;
check whether any of the ELR xrefs are duplicated.

Apart from giving authorities this feedback IA is interested in

the results to assess
whether there are any changes that should be considered to help
the data standardisation
process, particularly in the matching of data and the resolution
of issues. The
findings will be shared with the MoJ.

If you wish to take advantage of this free service we will

require a file containing
the Register of Electors unique reference and the NLPG UPRN that
is matched to that
unique reference. The file can also include the address elements
from the RoE as
an optional extra. Please send this file to [1]core@intelligent-
addressing.co.uk.
In return for data we will send all participating local
authorities a report via
email. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to
contact Catherine Teare
on 020 7747 3500.

[1] mailto:core@intelligent-addressing.co.uk
**10. CORE Matching**
The IA Special Projects Team has now received 119 files and has
returned reports
on 114 of them using IA's combined software and manual matching
processes. Over
7.3 million records have been processed with an average match
rate of 97.19%. IA
has matched nearly half of the authorities in the Yorkshire and
Humberside Region
which has gained a match rate of 98%. Any local authorities
interested in using
IA for their CORE data matching should contact Catherine Teare
on 020 7747 3500
or [1]core@intelligent-addressing.co.uk.

We would like to take this opportunity to remind authorities

that have still not
submitted their claims forms for the grants that these have to
be submitted by March
31st 2009; LLPG custodians are encouraged to ensure that their
EROs are making the
necessary submission. This also applies to the Authorities
involved in the formation
of new unitary authorities on April 1st 2009. The submissions
must be made by the
Districts this year as no forms will be signed off for the
unitaries after April
1st.

The process is outlined on the MoJ's website at:

[2]www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/electoral-data-standards.htm.
Specific queries about the process should be made to: Alison
Franco Tel: 020 3334
3832 email: [3]Alison.Franco@justice.gsi.gov.uk.

[1] mailto:core@intelligent-addressing.co.uk
[2] http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/electoral-data-
standards.htm
[3] mailto:Alison.Franco@justice.gsi.gov.uk

**11. Unitary Boundary Deadline Delayed**

The government has pushed back the deadline for the Boundary
Committee to decide
on the structures of new unitary councils in Devon, Norfolk and
Suffolk.

The committee had been due to deliver its verdict by last

Friday. However, in the
wake of East Devon DC appealing against a high court ruling
backing Devon's bid
to become a single county unitary, the Department for
Communities & Local Government
 told LGCplus, the Local Government Chronicle, that the deadline
had been extended
to July 15th 2009.

See [1]www.lgcplus.com for more information.

In other areas the process of migrating to towards the new

Unitary Status Councils
by April 1st 2009 is proving very busy for all concerned and
LGIH have employed
Peter Hood Consultancy to co-ordinate the wide range of issues
incurred by the transition.

Peter was previously employed at Basingstoke & Deane Borough

Council for over 21
years, the last six years as ALO and LLPG custodian and was also
involved in the
organisational aspect of the NLPG South East region.

In order to successfully aggregate the District gazetteers into

a single gazetteer,
each custodian is required to ensure their respective gazetteer
is error free, any
duplications between adjacent districts resolved and thought
given to ensure links
to 3rd party software retained. When the aggregated gazetteers
are ready, Intelligent
Addressing will program time to ensure that all traces of the
old district gazetteers
are removed from the NLPG hub prior to loading a new Unitary
gazetteer.

[1]
http://www.lgcplus.com/News/2009/02/unitary_boundary_deadline_dela
yed.html

**12. Inspire**
In last month's Ezine we published an article reporting that
LGIH/LGA were working
with IA and a small group of very active local authorities to
examine the European
Inspire team's [1] data specifications on behalf of local
government. The final
report has now been written and submitted. If you are
interested in viewing this,
please email [2]inspire@idea.gov.uk

[1] http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/implementingRulesDocs_ds.cfm
[2] mailto:inspire@idea.gov.uk

**13. Defra UK SDI Spring Workshop Programme**

Official outreach events in support of INSPIRE and UK SDI. These
day events are
 timed to coincide with the INSPIRE Transposition Consultation
and will provisionally
cover the following areas:

INSPIRE and the UK Location Strategy

Legal Process; Transposition Consultation Document
INSPIRE Conceptual Design and Implementation Rules
Breakout sessions and feedback collation

The objectives are to gain feedback and input into the INSPIRE
Consultation Document
supporting the programme transposition; to present and gain
feedback on Conceptual
Design and Implementation elements of the programme and to
continue to build awareness
and understanding of INSPIRE and the aspirations of UK SDI.

The workshops are being logistically managed by AGI with the

content delivered by
the Defra UK SDI Programme Team.

This is an opportunity to engage directly with the UK SDI

Programme Team and AGI
welcome attendees at the following venues and dates:

April 28th 2009: Belfast, Holiday Inn

April 30th 2009: London, School of Economic Science
May 6th 2009: Edinburgh, Barcelo Carlton Hotel
May 7th 2009: Manchester, Thistle Hotel
May 12th 2009: Cardiff, Barcelo Angel Hotel

Further information from: [1] The AGI.

[1] http://www.agi.org.uk/pooled/articles/BF_NEWSART/view.asp?
Q=BF_NEWSART_310328

**14. National datasets at GSDI 11**

A paper put forward by IDeA and IA has been accepted for
presentation at GSDI 11
in Rotterdam on June 15-19th 2009.

This conference incorporates jointly and separately organized

sessions of the Eleventh
International Conference of the [1]GSDI Association, the Third
INSPIRE Conference,
and a national conference on Dutch SDI Results and Challenges.
The organizers of
the event said "The quality of submissions was very high and
less than half of the
submissions were selected by the review panel for speaking slots
in the jointly
organized sessions."
 The presentation is called 'Achieving a national infrastructure
for addresses and
streets across government in England and Wales using standards
and sound information
management principles' will be presented by Steve Brandwood.

[1] http://www.gsdi.org/

**15. LB Harrow is Looking for an LLPG Assistant**

LB Harrow are currently looking for a suitably experienced
person to assist in the
maintenance and support of the Council's Local Land & Property
Gazetteer (LLPG).

We want somebody who can assist the LLPG Custodian in helping to

improve the quality
of our Gazetteer. There are a large number of queries and
duplicate records that
need to be resolved and the postholder will have particular
responsibility for dealing
with these in order to improve the quality of Harrow's Gazetteer
in advance of the
2011 Census. You will be required to undertake mainly desk-based
research in order
to resolve these anomalies, but some site inspections may also
be necessary. You
will be using a number of different IT systems to undertake this
work, including
extensive use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS).

Closing date: 20th March 2009. Salary £21,099 - £22,977 pa for

a 1 year contract.
You will need to ensure you hold a valid work permit for this
position before applying.

Interviews to be held in the week commencing 30th March. Apply

online at [1]www.harrow.gov.uk
or email your name and address to recruitment@harrowcouncil.info
quoting reference
PS LL1782. Alternatively, please call 020 8424 1983, fax 0118
952 0108 or write
to Harrow Recruitment Team, First Floor, 60 St Mary's Butts,
Reading, Berkshire,
RG1 2LG.

[1] http://poweredby.jobsgopublic.com/harrow/index.cfm?
fuseaction=Job.Display&StartRow=1&keywords=&SearchType=ListAll&btn
Submit=y&job_id=2318267&source=s&currentJobRow=1

**16. Luton BC is Seeking a Geospatial Technician**

Luton Borough Council has created a team of specialists who are
developing and implementing
a corporate knowledge base of people, property and other GIS
data across the whole
the council. It is seeking a Geospatial Technician to play a
key role in the ongoing
development and maintenance of the enterprise spatial database
and its associated
GIS technologies, along with the activities required to manage
and use the corporate
geospatial datasets. Experience in capturing, maintaining and
using GIS data is
essential; experience in maintaining a Local Land and Property
Gazetteer (LLPG)
would be an advantage.

Ref: 09/0047. Salary: £20,591 - £22,664 p.a. Location: Town

Hall, Luton. Application
Closing Date: 13/03/2009

For more details see [1]http://jobs.luton.gov.uk or please call

Ann Pegrum on 01582
547013 if you would like an informal discussion about this
position.

[1] http://jobs.luton.gov.uk/Job
Details.aspx/973/Geospatial_Technician?SminimumSalary=0&Smax

**17. Spelthorne is Looking for a System Support & Maintenance

Officer**
Spelthorne Borough Council is looking for a System Support and
Maintenance Officer,
to assist staff in the use and development of their property
based database systems,
GIS (Geographic Information System) and other related systems.
The successful applicant
will be responsible for the textual and spatial capture of
information vital to
the successful running of our property based services, such as
the planning application
service and land searches, as well as providing application
(including Microsoft
Access) support and training to staff.

Working with the GIS Officer, the successful applicant will also
provide support
to this role, resolving technical queries with data owners and
users, dealing with
existing datasets and the provision of ad-hoc mapping services,
amongst other related
duties.

In return we can offer excellent conditions of service with a

benefits package that
includes flexible working hours, pension scheme, free car
parking and at least 23
 days paid leave per year. Salary £22,787 - £27,526 per annum.

Closing date: Friday 20th March (3pm) Interview date: Friday 3rd
April

Full information and an application form are available at

[1]www.surreyjobs.info
or at [2]www.spelthorne.gov.uk alternatively please contact
Recruitment Services
on 01784 444263 (24 hour answerphone) quoting reference number
SD248.

Unfortunately we are unable to reply to all candidates. If we

have not contacted
you within 3 weeks of the closing date then your application has
been unsuccessful.

CVs will only be accepted in support of a completed application

form.

[1] http://www.surreyjobs.info
[2] http://www.spelthorne.gov.uk

[NLPG]
**1. NLPG Technical Enhancements**
IA is undertaking some enhancements to its technical
infrastructure on the evening
of Friday 27th March 2009, which will mean the IP addresses of
our NLPG servers
will change. Whilst the impact on the services IA provide to
your organisation
will be minimal it may require your IT department making a small
configuration change
to allow you to continue to access the NLPG FTP server at a new
address.

Details of these changes, which will affect users of the ftp

server, will be emailed
to users in the second half of March.

**2. NLPG Health Check Exceptions**

Following a successful trial in two regions, Health Check
Exceptions can now be
submitted by all authorities. This means that records can be
excluded from specific
Health Check Warnings where there is a genuine exception to the
rule. Guidance on
how to submit these records is available in the document 'Health
Check Exceptions'
available to download from the[1] NLPG website. Only Exceptions
to the two Warnings
set out in the guidance document will be accepted at the moment.

[1] http://www.iahub.net/docs/1235731833444.pdf

[NSG]
**1. NSG Technical Enhancements**
Following a successful trial in two regions, Health Check
Exceptions can now be
submitted by all authorities. This means that records can be
excluded from specific
Health Check Warnings where there is a genuine exception to the
rule. Guidance on
how to submit these records is available in the document 'Health
Check Exceptions'
available to download from the[1] NLPG website. Only Exceptions
to the two Warnings
set out in the guidance document will be accepted at the moment.

[1] http://www.nlpg.org.uk

**2. NSG Uploads**

February has seen yet another increase in the number of
authorities that have successfully
submitted to the NSG hub. Unfortunately still nearly a third of
NSG creating authorities
are not able to submit on a monthly basis. The NSG team would
urge all of you to
upload your gazetteers in March. In light of the forthcoming
changes to DTF 7.1
it is imperative not to have legacy data remaining in the Hub.
If you require any
assistance with your upload during this month please contact the
Helpdesk in the
first instance on [1]helpdesk@intelligent-addressing.co.uk or
call 0207 747 3502.

[1] mailto:helpdesk@intelligent-addressing.co.uk

**3. DTF7.1**
As you are all aware, the NSG is moving towards BS7666:2006 from
March 2nd 2009
with a view of publishing in the new DTF 7.1 format for April
Downloads. The team
at IA are working very hard to ensure the ease of transition for
all authorities.
Please refer to the [1]NSG website for further information in
particular the following
documents:
LGIH EToN 5.01 Implementation Letter
National Street Gazetteer Data Entry Conventions Document (DEC-
NSG)
National Street Gazetteer DTF 7.1 Specification
New Unitary Authority LSG Transition Plan

Further documentation and instructions will be sent to all LSG

Custodians shortly.

[1] http://www.thensg.org.uk/iansg/link.htm?id=2008

**4. EToN 5**

EToN 5.0 came into effect from January 12th 2009. Thanks to all
of you that managed
to submit your EToN 5.0 ODD files. If you are having problems
submitting an EToN
5.0 file or would like the NSG team to test the data, please
submit the EToN 5
ODD file with your full LSG submission via the [1]NSG website.

[1] http://www.thensg.org.uk

**5. NSG Ftp**

ALOs and NSG Custodians should now have access to the NSG Ftp
Site. We hope you
are finding this useful. Currently your site should have your
February Health Checks,
along with your LSG Improvement Schedule and Updated mapping for
January's submissions.

**6. Regional Meetings**

Regional Meetings are being planned at the moment. Dates will be
announced by your
regional chairs.

Current Scheduled Meetings:

South West - March 13th

London - March 18th
South East - TBC
North East - TBC
Yorkshire & Humberside Region - TBC
West Midlands Region -TBC
North West - TBC
East of England - TBC
Wales - TBC

Regional Meetings that have already taken place:

East Midlands