2.1.1
GeoPlace® LLP is a public sector limited liability partnership between the Local Government Association and Ordnance Survey and is responsible for compiling and maintaining GeoHub as the unification of all the core address and streets datasets GeoPlace maintain. GeoHub is a system that provides a single source for all addressing and street data requirements. GeoPlace’s role is to work with local authorities and other organisations to create and maintain GeoHub and the National Street Gazetteer (NSG for England and Wales), providing definitive sources of publicly-owned spatial address and street data. Ordnance Survey markets a range of address and street products delivered from GeoHub.
2.1.2
GeoPlace issued a Data Co-operation Agreement (DCA) to all District, County and Unitary status councils in England and Wales. It provides for a legally binding agreement between the parties to support the creation and maintenance of GeoPlace information and databases (particularly related to address and street information for England and Wales and address information for Scotland through a separate agreement).
2.1.3
The main purpose of the DCA is to underpin the recognition by Government of the substantial social and economic benefits that core reference geography brings. It forms part of the framework put in place by Government to enable access by the whole of the public sector to definitive spatial information through the Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA). The DCA also recognises the role of councils in the creation and source of particular spatial information, specifically address and street information.
2.1.4
Within the DCA each council is defined as a DCA Participating Authority and is contracted under a data licence contained within the DCA to create, maintain and deliver their Authority Updates (address and street information) to GeoPlace.
2.1.5
For those DCA Participating Authorities with a statutory Street Naming and Numbering (SNN) function Authority Updates are defined as DCA Address Updates. In DCA Participating Authorities with a Local Highway Authority function Authority Updates are defined as DCA Street Updates. If the DCA Participating Authority has London Borough, Metropolitan, Unitary or Welsh
Unitary status (collectively defined as a Unitary Council) both these functions will form the responsibilities of that DCA Participating Authority. Where the DCA Participating Authority is a District Council it will be solely responsible for delivering DCA Address Updates. DCA Participating Authorities with a County Council status are solely responsible for delivering DCA Street Updates.
2.1.6
The DCA defines a specific responsibility for the function and role to be undertaken in each DCA Participating Authority for creating, maintaining and delivering Authority Updates to GeoPlace. These are the Authority Address Custodian and the Authority Street Custodian. District Councils will solely have an Authority Address Custodian function. County Councils will solely have an Authority Street Custodian function. All types of Unitary status councils will have an Authority Address Custodian and an Authority Street Custodian function and role.
2.1.7
These functions and roles within and between councils may act as an interaction channel for other roles defined in the DCA as:
- additional Authority Address Custodian contact and/or Authority Street Custodian contact where appropriate;
- the Authority Principal Contact;
- the Authority’s street naming and numbering officer (or equivalent);
- Additional Street Data (ASD) maintainer (or equivalent);
- Traffic Management Act 2004 (TMA) traffic manager (or equivalent);
- the public right of way definitive plan/map officer (or equivalent, as defined in the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981); and
- the Authority’s New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 (NRSWA) street works manager (or equivalent).
2.1.8
The DCA defines that the content of all Authority Updates must be in accordance with this reference manual, the GeoPlace Data Entry
Conventions (DEC) and Best Practice for Addresses, known as the DEC-Addresses. For a full description of the purpose of the DEC-Addresses, see Section 3. In summary the main purpose of the DEC-Addresses reference manual is to provide:
- The Authority Address Custodian and the SNN Officer with a comprehensive consistent maintenance and update resource.
- Definitions, conventions and guidance for those wishing to improve how they maintain address data more efficiently and in a consistent manner across government.
- Consistent definitions and conventions for those who use address data and those who, equally importantly, wish to understand why they should use good quality address data.