OS helps Local Authorities Environmental Services

10 July 2007, 6:11pm

Ordnance Survey helps local authority avoid dead ends in environmental services

Ordnance Survey's most accurate and detailed transport dataset, OS MasterMap Integrated Transport Network (ITN) Layer, is being used by Daventry District Council to help it plan environmental services, as the area is set to become home to 20,000 new residents by 2010.

By taking advantage of the depth of information in OS MasterMap ITN Layer, the Council, with the help of contractors White Young Green and Integrated Skills Ltd, has been able to ensure that all its waste-collection vehicles take the safest most efficient routes.

This has not just helped speed up rounds and reduce congestion and fuel emissions, but has also saved thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money. The entire district can now be served by eight rounds rather than the nine that was initially expected.

OS MasterMap ITN Layer contains 99.21% of load links and over 740,000 named roads nationwide, and is a powerful tool for service planning and management. Each road link has a unique identifier, or TOID, to which feature and statistical data can be attached to aid location management, asset management and analysis.

In addition, it includes Road Routing Information (RRI), which contains a host of road restriction data. This includes information on the location of one-way streets, no entry points, turning restrictions, and width, height and weight limits.

The road routing information within OS MasterMap ITN Layer has proved to be an invaluable resource for Daventry District Council, since around half of its roads are subject to weight restrictions, making them unfit for heavy refuse collection vehicles.

Daventry District Council now plans to work with Northamptonshire County Council on extending the use of OS MasterMap ITN Layer to other localities as part of the Northamptonshire Waste Partnership, a project due to be completed in 2010.

Simon Hume, GIS Officer at Daventry District Council, says, "OS MasterMap ITN Layer has made it possible for Daventry District Council to optimise existing refuse rounds and minimise the requirement for new ones. As a result, we expect to achieve savings of around £25,000 per year."

"We're very pleased that OS MasterMap ITN Layer has helped improve the efficiency of local authority services," comments Tom Satterthwaite, Senior Product Manager at Ordnance Survey, "while at the same time helping reduce congestion and fuel emissions. It only goes to show, once again, the real impact that quality geographic information can have on people's lives."

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