NLPG the waste management' s essential in Somerset

17 July 2007, 12:40pm

NLPG address database proves essential for waste management in South Somerset

London, UK, 17 July 2007 - South Somerset District Council is pioneering the use of a centralised address database to improve the provision of waste collection services. Based on the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG), the Council’s database contains a unique reference number for every single property, making it much more complete, accurate and up-to-date than current postal addresses. This has proved an essential component of a project to roll out wheelie bins to 70,000 domestic properties and assists with the day-to-day management of waste collections. An additional bonus has been improved customer care through the integration of waste collection details within the Council’s Customer First call centre and on the Council’s website.

South Somerset District Council began planning the move from traditional black sack weekly collections to fortnightly wheelie bin collections as far back as 2004, although the project only recently reached completion. The challenge faced by South Somerset Council was initially to identify all domestic properties, then identify those properties that were considered unsuitable for a normal wheelie bin and finally to consolidate this information into a central database for use by the Waste Services Unit and other Council departments.

“Even at the start of this project our NLPG data was the most consolidated and mature of the disparate address databases within the Council,” said Bruce Soord, Spatial Systems Manager. “The decision to use the gazetteer as the master property list was further enforced by the use of Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) within departmental databases such as Council Tax. This enabled us to identify all single occupancy residences, for allocation of smaller wheelie bins, at the click of a button.”

The NLPG data was further used to identify properties considered unsuitable for standard bins during an extensive field exercise. Council surveyors, equipped with PDA devices loaded with Ordnance Survey maps and the gazetteer running on a mobile Geographical Information System (GIS), identified and recorded all ‘non-standard’ properties including those properties requiring larger or shared bins, those without storage areas for the news bins and properties without access for refuse collection vehicles. This information was then spatially queried and analysed to sort new collection dates, routes and vehicle allocations.

“The NLPG has played a crucial role in the success of this project,” continued Soord. “In fact without it I think we would still be trying to complete the roll out of wheelie bins throughout the district. In addition, as we now have an accurate and integrated Waste Collection system, the information is instantly available to advisors in our Customer First call centre and on our website, improving our customer service levels and supporting our e-Government targets.”

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