Conformance to British Standard BS7666 'Spatial Data-Sets for Geographic Referencing'
Following initial work sponsored by the Local Authorities' Geographic Information Advisory Group (GIAG) and carried out through the Local Government Management Board, the British Standards Institution has recently issued an important standard, BS7666, which has major implications for all with an interest in spatial information and GIS. The standard has 4 parts (Part 1 'Specification for a Street Gazetteer'; Part 2 'Specification for a Land and Property Gazetteer'; Part 3 'Specification for Addresses'; and a new Part 4 'Specification for Public Rights of Way' which was issued in November 1996).
BS7666 is intended to be a national standard which can be implemented locally. Through the statutory 'Regulations for the Street Works Register', the County Councils have been given responsibility for the Local Street Registers (conformant with Part 1), and are actively engaged on their compilation with input from District Councils. Whilst the 'Land and Property Gazetteer' is currently not underpinned by the same force of legislation, Authorities which are tendering for GIS and related land and property systems, are being forced to think hard about whether to include conformance to Part 2 as a mandatory requirement. This is because Part 2 offers the opportunity to establish standard 'basic land and property units', which are an essential pre-requisite for Authorities wishing to share information between departments. Part 3 of the standard is of no less importance, but Authorities will tend to look to Ordnance Survey and Royal Mail to take the initiative in ensuring that commercial data products such as AddressPoint eventually conform. Part 4 has fundamental implications for all with an interest in Public Rights of Way, and throws down the challenge of integrating PROWs with the Street Gazetteer if separate systems and lost opportunities are to be avaoided.
Local Authorities will need to consider to what extent and when their spatial data and systems should conform to BS7666. Authorities that have a strong corporate commitment to the exchange of land and property data between departments, and those that are currently using Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) will need to take a stance on BS7666 at an early date. Similarly Authorities which are tendering for GIS and land and property systems will also need to decide whether to insist on conformance. Of particular importance will be the need to start by assessing the business case for conformance to the standard (costs versus benefits), and the degree of compliance which is justified, before specifying how the 'blue-print' of BS7666 is to be implemented in practice. Strong corporate working will be required to ensure that Land and Property Gazetteer, Street Gazetteer and Rights of Way do not develop as separate and inconsistent systems.
In response to pressure from its clients, PTC is now able to offer a modular service covering:
Contact us for further information, and a printed copy of our Information
Pack.
E-mail to Peter Thorpe
at peter@ptcon.co.uk or telephone 01926 852799.
