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| February 2008 Edition |

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General:

1. Ministry of Justice - CORE Project

2. Commercial Licenses for NLPG Available Soon
3. Birmingham Signs the MSA
4. Local Government Data Provides Model for INSPIRE
5. Commons Select Committee Report on Ordnance Survey
6. Underpinning Transformational Government - Call for Papers
7. Susskind stands down as Chair of APPSI
8. Intelligent Addressing Seek Gazetteer Technician
9. Wear Valley District Council Seeks LLPG Custodian
10. Aligned Assets Seek Professional Services Technical
Consultant

NLPG:

1. Royal Mail Use of NLPG advance Data

2. NLPG 7.3 Training Sessions
3. Forthcoming Meetings

NSG:

1. The LSG Data Entry Conventions and Best Practice for the NSG
v3: Consultation on Draft Document
2. NSG Validation
3. New LSG Validation, Compliance Checks and Changes to ASD
Codes
4. Submitting Operational District Data Files
5. Monthly Submissions
6. Up and Coming NSG Events

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

[General]
**1. Ministry of Justice - CORE Project**
The Electoral Commission has today (29.2.08) accepted the MoJ's
advice to move toward
BS7666 addressing and have made a recommendation for
implementation in Great Britain.
This recommendation now enables the Secretary of State under
the Representative
of the People Act to direct EROs to comply with such standards.
If the recommendation
is accepted, EROs will have until 1st December 2009 to
standardise their addressing
 data to BS7666.

Further information about the implications for the EROs, their

systems suppliers
and the LLPG/NLPG community will be circulated by the MoJ over
the coming weeks.
The MoJ have a mailbox for enquiries -
[1]CORE@justice.gsi.gov.uk

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

**2. Commercial Licenses for NLPG Available Soon**

Details of the commercial arrangements for licensing of the NLPG
are being finalized.

IDeA and IA are arranging an event to mark the availability of

end-user licenses
for potential users of the NLPG, on 30th April at the Royal
Geographical Society.

This event will be aimed at organizations that are interested in

using the NLPG,
but have been unable to do so for the past eight years due to
the difficulty of
agreeing fair and reasonable licensing terms with the Ordnance
Survey.

**3. Birmingham Signs the MSA**

Birmingham City Council has signed up to the MSA and NLPG/NSG
thus ensuring 100%
coverage of England and Wales. As a result all address and
street information is
now being maintained at its source in the 376/172 local
authorities respectively
and compiled to the nationally consistent datasets at the NLPG
and NSG hubs.

In 2007 the NLPG was chosen to underpin the new FiReControl

project and is used
increasingly by Police forces as the best source of address
information.

In addition to sustaining the "emergency services" the NLPG is

also transforming
local government through cross-authority initiatives. In West
Sussex seven boroughs
and district councils, the county council, Sussex Police and the
Fire Service,
have worked collectively to overcome political, cultural and
technical challenges
to deliver a seamless customer information system to the 750,000
citizens of West
Sussex. Whilst in Warwickshire, the NLPG is central to a scheme
to migrate nearly
100 different borough and district services across the county to
a central customer
relation management system.

**4. Local Government Data Provides Model for INSPIRE**

s reported in the January eZine, the NLPG and NSG have been
accepted as reference
data models for the Addresses, Administrative Units and
Cadastral Parcels and Transport
Networks themes within INSPIRE.

In addition to the local government datasets being selected as a

reference dataset,
as recognized experts in this field, Intelligent Addressing has
been invited on
to the Addresses Technical Working Group.

The Technical Working Group will examine users requirements to

ensure that the specifications
meet the requirements of users and can easily fit into the
INSPIRE conceptual framework.
Once the Group has accommodated the users requirements in the
specification, they
will propose a final version that becomes the technical part of
the Implementing
Rule for the addresses data theme. This means that from 2009
any new address dataset
across Europe will have to accommodate the agreed data structure
and any existing
datasets by 2016.

**5. Commons Select Committee Report on Ordnance Survey**

The report from the Commons Select Committee on Communities and
Local Government
looking into Ordnance Survey's licensing and business model has
been published -
see
[1]www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmcomloc/26
8/26802.htm
for the full report.

[1]
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmcomlo
c/268/26802.htm

**6. Underpinning Transformational Government - Call for Papers**

This year's Underpinning Transformational Government conference
and presentation
 of the NLPG and NSG Exemplar Awards will take a different format
to the previous
years event.

The morning session will have a strategic focus with

presentations from Cheryl Miller,
Chief Executive of East Sussex County Council and Local
Government's representative
on the GI Panel with a keen interest in INSPIRE; John Hayes,
Director of the IDeA
and Glyn Evans, Assistant to the Chief Executive on Business
Transformation at Birmingham
City Council.

The Exemplar Awards will be presented following this session.

Following lunch, the afternoon will split into two streams,

loosely focusing on
'land and property' issues and 'streets issues'. We would like
to issue a Call
for Papers for these afternoon sessions. We are looking for
papers that demonstrate
innovation and project success in areas such as Transformation,
partnership working,
integration of gazetteers with each other and with other
corporate datasets and
systems, use of the gazetteers by the emergency services and
local area partnerships,
interesting applications within the authority, readiness for TMA
and Streetworks
Registers.

These suggestions are not exhaustive, they just serve to provide

some ideas on the
type on papers that would be welcomed, and if you have another
interesting idea
around the use of the gazetteers, please do send it through.

The closing date for entries is Friday 18th April 2008. Please
send through an
abstract of 200-300 words describing your project, together with
your contact details
to [1]ggander@intelligent-addressing.co.uk.

Details on the Awards categories will be sent to Custodians

separately.

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

**7. Susskind stands down as Chair of APPSI**

Following the decision by Professor Richard Susskind OBE to
stand down as Chair
of the Advisory Panel, APPSI are seeking to recruit a new chair.
 If you are interested in finding out more information about the
position, please
see the [1]APPSI website.

[1] http://www.appsi.gov.uk/recruitment/index.htm

**8. Intelligent Addressing Seek Gazetteer Technician**

Intelligent Addressing Limited (IA) provides private sector
skills and consulting
services to the public and private sectors primarily in relation
to the management
of geographically referenced information.

The National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) and the National
Street Gazetteer
(NSG) are the vehicles for creating unique and unambiguous
identification of land
and property across England and Wales. IA has been appointed by
Local Government
as the National Custodian of the NLPG and NSG databases and
Manager of the national
Hubs.

IA is expanding its existing gazetteers team and is looking for

the right candidate
to provide technical and procedural support to local authorities
as the NLPG and
NSG is embedded into more parts of local government. The post is
based at IA's offices
in London and offers suitable candidates the chance of
significant advancement in
their careers in information management.

Gazetteer Technician - £ dependent on experience.

You will be part of team providing technical support to local

authorities in the
receipt and incorporation of LLPG data into the NLPG. You will
need to have practical
experience of BS 7666 and LLPG processes, a keen eye for detail,
an enquiring mind
and an ability to work on your own initiative. Some knowledge of
Oracle databases
and SQL would be an advantage but full training will be
provided.

If you are interested in any of these positions please send your

CV and covering
letter to [1]Simon Barlow. Closing date for applications is 20th
March 2007.

[1] mailto:sbarlow@intelligent-addressing.co.uk
**9. Wear Valley District Council Seeks LLPG Custodian**
Salary: SO1-SO2 (£23,749 - £27,594) (subject to job evaluation)
You will primarily be engaged in the delivery of the Local Land
and Property Gazetteer
and the corporate Geographical Information System (GIS)
initiatives, such as web
based GIS.

You will be the Custodian of the LLPG. You will promote the
LLPG and its integration
with other Council systems, as the corporate address database.
You will provide
user support, training and advice to the Council's GIS
community.

You will have experience of SX3 Northgate iGaz Gazetteer

Management System or similar
Gazetteer Management System. You will have experience of GGP
GIS product and eGGP
GIS product or similar GIS system.

To apply you must be educated to degree level or hold a

recognised professional
qualification.

For an informal discussion about the post please contact David

Townsend (Head of
Planning and Building Control) telephone (01388) 761573. Further
details available
from [1]www.wearvalley.gov.uk

Closing Date : Noon on Friday 14th March 2008

[1] http://www.wearvalley.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=12622

**10. Aligned Assets Seek Professional Services Technical

Consultant**
Aligned Assets have an immediate requirement for a highly
motivated and ambitious
individual to join our small friendly consultancy team.

Key aspects of the role include the analysis, loading,

conversion and manipulation
of data. LLPG creation and cleansing advice. Installation and
configuration of
our product sets including integration with other third party
systems and technical
support.

For further details about this vacancy please visit

[1]www.aligned-assets.co.uk
. If you believe you meet our requirements, please send your CV
stating your salary
expectations to [2]jobs@aligned-assets.co.uk

[1] http://www.aligned-assets.co.uk
[2] mailto:jobs@aligned-assets.co.uk

[NLPG]
**1. Royal Mail Use of NLPG advance Data**
Discussions with the Royal Mail are still ongoing with RM
agreeing in principle
to receive local government SNN data transfer through "NLPG
advance". Further technical
work and testing is to take place before it goes live; in the
meanwhile SNN officers
should continue with their existing internal/external
notification processes until
further notice.

**2. NLPG 7.3 Training Sessions**

Intelligent Addressing will be organising training workshops for
LLPG Custodians
now that the 7.3 migration process is over. They will take place
in March and April.
Each training workshop will include information about working
with the new 7.3 Data
Transfer Format.

LLPG Custodians should register their interest with Catherine

Teare at [1]cteare@intelligent-addressing.co.uk.

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

**3. Forthcoming Meetings**

There are LLPG RCG meetings on the following dates:

LLPG Regional Chairs meeting - 4th March

South East - 13th March - (Crawley)
South West 14th March - (Taunton)

[NSG]
**1. The LSG Data Entry Conventions and Best Practice for the NSG
v3: Consultation on Draft Document**
The LSG Data Entry Conventions and Best Practice for the NSG v3:
Consultation on
Draft Document

The Regional Chairs LSG Custodian Group invites all users of the
NSG to consider
the draft LSG Data Entry Conventions and Best Practice for the
NSG v3 document -
available at the below link.

This is your opportunity to improve the quality and content of

the information contained
in the National Street Gazetteer (NSG).

The consultation period is now open and will run until the 14th
March. To respond
to this invite please follow the link below to find a letter
explaining the consultation
questionnaire in more detail.

For more information see:

[1]www.thensg.org.uk/docs/Consultation.zip

[1] http://www.thensg.org.uk/docs/Consultation.zip

**2. NSG Validation**

To facilitate improvement in the service and implement the
changes highlighted above
the automated NSG Compliance Test Service will not be available
during March.

Users will not be able to update LSG or ASD data at all during
the month.

**3. New LSG Validation, Compliance Checks and Changes to ASD

Codes**
The new regulations have not legislated any changes to the
format of LSG and ASD
files (apart from level 3). However the code lists used within
the ASD records have
been updated and each LSG file must only contain the latest
version of each street
or ESU.

A new version of the Compliance Test document has therefore been

created and can
be downloaded from the following link:
[1]www.thensg.org.uk/docs/compliance_check_v2.pdf

The main changes are as follows:

Street records
11.36 Latest version of streets only
ESU records
13.12 Latest version of ESUs only
ASD 21

Changes to 'Interest Type' code list

 21.19 Co-dependency between 'Maintaining Data Fields'
ASD 22
Changes to 'Reinstatement Type' code list
ASD 23

Changes to 'Special Designation Type' code list

23.29 Co-dependency between 'Consult fields'
ODD
Validation against schema and ASD 21 records only

[1] http://www.thensg.org.uk/docs/compliance_check_v2.pdf

**4. Submitting Operational District Data Files**

With the impending implementation of EToN 4 the NSG hub is
preparing for receipt
of Operational District Data files (ODD) in XML format. This
documentation is subject
to change and will be updated once the XML Schemas for ODD files
have been published
by the DfT.

Once agreed the final XML schemas will be made available via
[1]www.govtalk.gov.uk

It is very important that they are sent to the NSG hub so that
it can be distributed
via the NSG website prior to the 1st April 2008 go-live date.

When your authority has a compliant ODD file please ONLY send it
to the following
email address [2]ODD@thensg.org.uk

Do NOT send your ODD to any other email address at the NSG hub.

Do NOT copy (CC) to any other NSG or NLPG contact into the e-
mail.

Any files sent to alternative email addresses will be deleted

without warning and
without a automatic response.

If you don't send your ODD to the correct email address

specified above the NSG
hub will be unable to process the file.

Once your ODD file passes the basic validation the NSG hub will
make them available
to all registered users via the NSG download pages of
[3]www.thensg.org.uk.

[1] http://www.govtalk.gov.uk
[2] mailto:ODD@thensg.org.uk
[3] http://www.thensg.org.uk
**5. Monthly Submissions**
The new regulations require monthly updates of level 3
gazetteers to the NSG hub.
With monthly publications on the download pages.

Over the last 18 months most LSG Custodians will have been
making the updates monthly
before the 10th working day (before the 15th of the month).

Please remember other Highway Authorities now require your

street data and for this
reason the Regional Chairs LSG Custodian Group and IDeA have
agreed that all LSG
Custodians must update within the first 10 working days of each
month.

Submissions after the 10th working day will not be accepted and
will need to be
made in the following month.

This will allow other Highway Authorities to create ASD against

the latest LSG and
data and the hub to conduct extra validation and consistency
checks.

Please note that the set of mandatory files from 1st April 2008
onwards is:
Street File (xxxx_01.csv)
ASD 21 (xxxx_21.csv)
ASD 22 (xxxx_22.csv)
ODD (xxxx_OD.xml)

LSG Custodians will not be able to start testing any data until
all these files
are present in your bin.

**6. Up and Coming NSG Events**

A member of the NSG team will be attending the following events:
West Midlands Regional LSG Custodians Group, 5th March 2008, TBC
East of England Regional LSG Custodians Group, 10th March 2008,
TBC
London HAUC EXPO, 2nd April 2008, TBC