Local councils in the United Kingdom

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Houses of Parliament (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

UK Government and Local Councils use maps extensively across many areas of operation: planning department, highways department, refuse collection, etc, etc. For many years they have been compelled (by the "mapping services agreement") to license Ordnance Survey map products at great expense. The Ordnance Survey Opendata announcements will no doubt bring about some fundamental changes in the way this works, but even before that, some forward-looking local councils experimented with using other map providers particularly for public facing online web mapping.

OpenStreetMap offers some very interesting possibilities in this area, not just as a provider of raster maps, but as a platform for engaging with local communities for gathering detailed map data, and presenting it back to them in interesting and useful ways. Feel free to use this page to flesh out some ideas for how local councils can do this.

Government use of OpenStreetMap data

Tools / ideas / etc.

Mashups using OSM as a base map

Custom rendering to match a council website.

Maps for printed material. SVG output.

Providing local web developers with a platform - Government (perhaps even local government) could look at providing data APIs, tile services, widgets for local web developers. Much more do-able now all the data is open licensed. Also certain types of tools can be scaled easier for the limited area of a local council district (a very small area in OSM terms)

NOVAM

OpenStreetMap use of Government resources

In the second half of the 2000s (decade), the Open Data movement grew increasingly loud. This led to the appointment of Sir Tim Berners Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt to oversee the release of data sets from various UK Government departments and the new data.gov.uk website. Many of these data sets are released under the new Open Government Licence, allowing royalty-free and commercial use of the data, including with OpenStreetMap.

This section discusses government data that may be of use within OpenStreetMap. It is split by data that has been released under a licence that is compatible with OpenStreetMap's licence and other data that is currently only available by request.

Data available for use in OpenStreetMap

The following government datasets have been released under licences that allow their use within OpenStreetMap:

  1. NaPTAN - Public transport access points (including every bus stop) in Great Britain.
  2. Ordnance Survey OpenData - A limited set of Ordnance Survey datasets.
  3. Natural England data - Includes land boundaries (e.g. Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty) and National Trails.
  4. UK Food Hygiene Rating System - Listings of all hygiene rated businesses in the UK with approximate locations

Other Government Data

This section discusses data that may of some use to mapping in the United Kingdom. It does not signify that the data can be used within OpenStreetMap and all mappers are advised to check OSM's copyright policy. If you would like to use any of this data, you would first need to write to the copyright holder (often your local council).

  1. Lists of changes to highways/street naming notifications
    Local Councils notify interested parties on the council's decisions on naming and numbering new properties and streets. As the highway network has now been densely surveyed and mapped, it would be an invaluable list of places that might need re-surveying or other editing. Often this is released on each councils website in the form of a PDF file per decision, in a human readable format only. The exact format differs by council. Read more.
  2. Definitive Statement & Definitive Map
    In England and Wales each "surveying authority" is required to produce a statement (list) and map of public rights of way. Any path not on these documents by 2026 will no longer be a right of way. We are hoping to get some of these released under a compatible license so that we can help identify missing paths. See #List of UK Councils.
  3. Gazetteers
    Compare OSM data to a CSV (e.g. from a gazetteer) - http://github.com/chrisfleming/osm-vs-csv
  4. data.gov.uk - Rights of Way search
    Current Rights of Way Q&As - http://data.gov.uk/search/apachesolr_search/rights%20of%20way

How else can the government help?

Get the community mapping! Councils could help us run mapping parties (even if just through room hire).

List of UK Councils

Contact details, lists of members (useful for lobbying) and other information on each council may be found on Openly Local.

England

The following list of 152 local authorities are (believed to be) the "surveying authorities" responsible for maintaining a definitive map and statement of public rights of way in England. Please respect the © copyright when following external web links.

Council Region Right of Way iMap Other
maps
Public Right of Way Definitive Statement & Definitive Map Notes
Barking and Dagenham Greater London (outer) download raw data
Barnet Greater London (outer)
Barnsley Yorkshire and the Humber download raw data
Bath and North East Somerset South West England download raw data
Bedford East of England view or download raw data
Bexley Greater London (outer) download raw data
Birmingham West Midlands download raw data Thanks to rjw62 for getting the data
Blackburn with Darwen North West England download raw data
Blackpool North West England view or download raw data
Bolton North West England view or download raw data
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole South West England view or download raw data
Bracknell Forest South East England view or download raw data
Bradford Yorkshire and the Humber view or download raw data
Brent Greater London (outer)
Brighton and Hove South East England view or download raw data
Bristol, City of South West England view or download raw data
Bromley Greater London (outer) view or download raw data
Buckinghamshire South East England view or download raw data
Bury North West England view or download raw data [1]
Calderdale Yorkshire and the Humber view or download raw data
Cambridgeshire East of England view [2] Google map Statements currently only in paper form. But an electronic copy is (slowly) being worked on. rjw62 requested statements and OGL use 2012-05-30. Only in paper form, so not practicable to provide us a copy.
Using the ICO, on 2015-11-10 rjw62 managed to get a snapshot of Cambridgeshire PRoW data; after considerable extra faff, as of 2017-05-05 a then-fresh copy is available under OGL v3 (required attribution is handled on Contributors page).
Camden Greater London (inner)
Central Bedfordshire East of England view or download raw data [3]
Cheshire East North West England view or download raw data [4]
Cheshire West and Chester North West England view or download raw data [5]
City of London Greater London (inner)
Cornwall South West England view or download raw data [6]
County Durham North East England view or download raw data
Coventry West Midlands download raw data
Croydon Greater London (outer)
Cumbria North West England view or download raw data Definitive map currently being digitised. --TimSC (talk) 10:56, 31 October 2013 (UTC)
Darlington North East England
Derby East Midlands view or download raw data
Derbyshire East Midlands view or download raw data [7]
Devon South West England view [8]
Doncaster Yorkshire and the Humber view or download raw data
Dorset South West England view or download raw data [9]
Dudley West Midlands view or download raw data
Ealing Greater London (outer)
East Riding of Yorkshire Yorkshire and the Humber download raw data
East Sussex South East England view or download raw data more details about downloading
Enfield Greater London (outer)
Essex East of England view or download raw data Definitive Statement is released with the OGL v3.0.
Gateshead North East England view or download raw data
Gloucestershire South West England view or download raw data Statements only in paper form. rjw62 requested statements and OGL use 2012-05-30. Only in paper form, so not practicable to provide us a copy.
Greenwich Greater London (inner)
Hackney Greater London (inner)
Halton North West England
Hammersmith and Fulham Greater London (inner)
Hampshire South East England view and download raw data Definitive statements http://data.gov.uk/dataset/hampshire-rightsofway looks like the RoW data. The data is also available from http://www3.hants.gov.uk/row/row-maps.htm; OS OpenData licence; we have confirmation from HCC and OS that we can use it.
Haringey Greater London (outer)
Harrow Greater London (outer)
Hartlepool North East England
Havering Greater London (outer)
Herefordshire, County of West Midlands view or download raw data
Hertfordshire East of England view or download raw data (OGL) [10] Definitive Statements are provided online. We have permission to use them under the OGL. rjw62 requested OGL use 2012-05-03. Now granted.
Hillingdon Greater London (outer)
Hounslow Greater London (outer)
Isle of Wight South East England view or download raw data Provides Definitive Map scans from Feb 2000 online which may be outdated. (© Non-Free) Shape Files for ROW relaesed under OGL here
Isles of Scilly South West England
Islington Greater London (inner)
Kensington and Chelsea Greater London (inner)
Kent South East England view or download raw data [11] TimSC requested via Open Kent, June 2012. Request declined.
Kingston upon Hull, City of Yorkshire and the Humber view or download raw data Definitive Maps are provided online (© Non-Free)
Kingston upon Thames Greater London (outer) view or download raw data
Kirklees Yorkshire and the Humber view or download raw data
Knowsley North West England view or download raw data
Lake District National Park North West England view or download raw data
Lambeth Greater London (inner)
Lancashire North West England view or download raw data [12]
Leeds Yorkshire and the Humber view or download raw data
Leicester East Midlands view or download raw data Policy page
Leicestershire East Midlands Start page, from there select a town/village to view map or download raw data
Lewisham Greater London (inner)
Lincolnshire East of England view or download raw data
Liverpool North West England view or download raw data
Luton East of England
Manchester North West England view or download raw data
Medway South East England view or download raw data
Merton Greater London (outer)
Middlesbrough North East England
Milton Keynes South East England view or download raw data
Newcastle upon Tyne North East England view or download raw data
Newham Greater London (outer)
Norfolk East of England view or download raw data Definitive statements obtained by rjw62 in July 2016.
North East Lincolnshire Yorkshire and the Humber view or download raw data
North Lincolnshire Yorkshire and the Humber view or download raw data Definitive Maps are provided online (© unknown)
North Somerset South West England view or download raw data
North Tyneside North East England
North Yorkshire Yorkshire and the Humber view or download raw data Thanks to John Thorn for getting the data
North Northamptonshire East Midlands view or download raw data Definitive Statement obtained by rjw62 In 2021, Northamptonshire County Council was abolished and two new unitary authorities created in its place: they are North Northamptonshire Council and West Northamptonshire Council. These two authorities are responsible for the public rights of way that are in their area.
Northumberland North East England view or download raw data
Nottingham East Midlands view or download raw data Statements in paper form only rjw62 requested statements and OGL use 2012-05-15. Statements in paper form only, so not practicable for them to provide a copy. They may be amenable to one of us going in person and making their our copy though.
Nottinghamshire East Midlands view or download raw data rjw62 requested statements and OGL use 2012-05-15.
Oldham North West England view or download raw data more details about downloading
Oxfordshire South East England view or download raw data [13] Definitive Map & Statements are provided online We have permission to use the Statements under the OGL. rjw62 requested OGL use 2012-05-03. Now granted.
Peterborough East of England view or download raw data
Plymouth South West Englad view or download raw data
Portsmouth South East England view or download raw data
Reading South East England download raw data
Redbridge Greater London (outer)
Redcar and Cleveland North East England view or download raw data more details about downloading
Richmond upon Thames Greater London (outer)
Rochdale North West England view or download raw data
Rotherham Yorkshire and the Humber view or download raw data
Rutland East Midlands view or download raw data
Salford North West England view or download raw data more details about downloading
Sandwell West Midlands view or download raw data
Sefton North West England view or download raw data
Sheffield Yorkshire and the Humber download raw data Definitive Statements are provided online. They have been released with the OGL. The data and DS were obtained and they were obtained with the OGL by Martin Spiers
Shropshire West Midlands view or download raw data [14]
Slough South East England view or download raw data
Solihull West Midlands download raw data Thanks to Nathan Case for getting the data
Somerset South West England view or download raw data
South Gloucestershire South West England download raw data
South Tyneside North East England download raw data
Southampton South East England view or download raw data
Southend-on-Sea East of England
Southwark Greater London (inner)
St. Helens North West England view or download raw data
Staffordshire West Midlands view or download raw data more details about downloading
Stockport North West England view or download raw data
Stockton-on-Tees North East England view or download raw data
Stoke-on-Trent West Midlands
Suffolk East of England download raw data some statements obtained under EIR
Definitive Statement dated 2020-01-14 released with OGL v3.0 is available.
rjw62 has obtained permission to use the Definitive Statements under OGL with a specific attribution / disclaimer statement.
Sunderland North East England download raw data
Surrey South East England Currently available: [15] view Data will soon be available here: [16].
Sutton Greater London (outer) download raw data
Swindon South West England view or download raw data
Tameside North West England view or download raw data
Telford and Wrekin West Midlands view or download raw data
Thurrock East of England view or download raw data
Torbay South West England view or download raw data
Tower Hamlets Greater London (inner)
Trafford North West England view or download raw data
Wakefield Yorkshire and the Humber view or download raw data
Walsall West Midlands view or download raw data
Waltham Forest Greater London (outer)
Wandsworth Greater London (inner)
Warrington North West England download raw data
Warwickshire West Midlands view or download raw data [17] Various maps available online or via WMS/WFS/TMS/WMTS under various licences
West Berkshire South East England view or download raw data
West Northamptonshire East Midlands view or download raw data At [18] the Definitive Statement was requested by rjw62. The Council said "the full statement information is contained within the GIS data". The data and DS for West Northamptonshire were obtained by rjw62.

In 2021, Northamptonshire County Council was abolished and two new unitary authorities created in its place: they are North Northamptonshire Council and West Northamptonshire Council. These two authorities are responsible for the public rights of way that are in their area.
West Sussex South East England view or download raw data [19] [20]
Westminster Greater London (inner)
Wigan North West England view or download raw data Definitive Statements (© Non-Free) rjw62 requested OGL use 2012-05-04. No reply, so follow-up sent 2012-06-29.
Wiltshire South West England view or download raw data
Windsor and Maidenhead South East England view or download raw data Definitive Map and Statement
Wirral North West England download raw data more details about downloading
Wokingham South East England view or download raw data
Wolverhampton West Midlands
Worcestershire West Midlands view, WMS Service [21] Scans of the definitive statement for each path can be accessed through the PRoW map. We have permission to use the statements under the OGL. The RoW data provided through the WMS service can be used under OS OpenData licence. rjw62 requested OGL use 2012-05-03. Now granted. RobJN received confirmation that the WMS service is available under the OS OpenData Licence (Aug 2012) [22].
York Yorkshire and the Humber Bridleways, Footpaths [23] [24] Definitive map released by City of York Council under Crown Copyright / OGL 3.0 (May 2015)

Wales

The following local authorities are (believed to be) the "surveying authorities" responsible for maintaining a definitive map and statement of public rights of way in Wales. Please respect the © copyright when following external web links.

Council Right of Way iMap Other
maps
Public Right of Way Definitive Statement & Definitive Map Notes
Blaenau Gwent view or download raw data
Brecon Beacons National Park Authority download raw data more details about downloading
Bridgend
Caerphilly view or download raw data Thanks to Dafydd Stephenson for getting the data
Cardiff view or download raw data
Carmarthenshire view or download raw data Thanks to John Thorn for getting the data
Ceredigion view or download raw data
Conwy view or download raw data
Denbighshire view or download raw data
Flintshire view or download raw data
Gwynedd download raw data
Isle of Anglesey view or download raw data
Merthyr Tydfil download raw data
Monmouthshire view or download raw data Thanks to John Thorn for getting the data
Neath Port Talbot view or download raw data Thanks to John Thorn for getting the data
Newport view or download raw data Thanks to John Thorn for getting the data
Pembrokeshire download raw data view
Powys view or download raw data Thanks to John Thorn for helping to get the data released
Rhondda Cynon Taf download raw data view
Swansea view or download raw data
Torfaen download raw data view
Vale of Glamorgan view or download raw data
Wrexham view in English
edrych arno yn y Gymraeg
download raw data

OpenStreetMap Development Platform in general

The above ideas are more around end uses. There are some ideas we could work on before that though to make it easier to build end-use apps. These ideas are not really specific to UK councils, but considering council-sized areas of data presents some interesting possibilities.

Turn NOVAM into something that can be used to check any specified POI data, including imports

Extract server
  • A basic extract server. Extract greater london.
  • Pull in updates (minutely?)
  • Extract individual boroughs by their boundary=administrative outlines
Extract formats

Shapefiles, Garmin IMGs, GPX POIs. These have been done before (see planet.osm#Extracts)

A small area like a London borough would allow us to convert to other formats. Could be interesting to build these into an extract server:

SVG, PDF (MapOSMatic?), Adobe Illustrator, DXF. Other ideas see Converting map data between formats

XAPI-like tag extracts

(but avoiding trying to install XAPI!) Again this is nicely simplified by considering an area the size of a borough:

  • Extend extract server to also provide various tag extracts.
    • e.g. Extract all shops. Extract all bus stops. Extract all recycle bins.
    • Multiple themed tags in one download? e.g. for kids: schools, play areas, youth clubs. Low Carbon Zones showing all renewables
  • A useful (but optional) format simplification might be to convert POIs mapped as areas (e.g. schools) back to single nodes (centrepoints)
  • POI formats: GeoRSS, KML, GPX, Tabular CSV data.
Visualising XAPI-like results

Having built above features we'd want out-of-the box OpenLayers (or Mapstraction?) configs or at least sample code for easily hooking up to it and seeing the results. e.g. all school POIs as markers on a slippy map. Maybe take ideas from NaPTAN/Novam ([25])


Great case studies

West Midlands gritting routes map - blog and map

NaPTAN data import (bus stops, etc.)

Ordnance Survey Opendata being traced / imported / etc.

Surrey Air Survey to provide free aerial photography of Surrey for tracing by councils and OSM volunteers.