Requests for council data
The below article is a guide to obtaining additional Council data for your Parish Online account.
1. Search for Open-Data
Many Councils make data available to download for free as Open-Data. Parish Online customers are encouraged to first search https://www.data.gov.uk/search to see what data the council has published.
Using the above link set the Publisher to the councils name. e.g Horsham District Council, then click Apply Filters.
Scroll through the datasets that have been published and once you have found a dataset of interest, click on it to access additional information in it.
Look in the DATA LINKS section of the page to see if the data is available in any of the following formats: WFS, WMS, SHP or Shapefile, GeoJSON or TAB/MIF. If any of these formats are listed, then this data can be loaded into Parish Online.
How to get this data into Parish Online?
Log a support ticket by emailing support@geoxphere.com using the title of Open-Data for [your parish name] and copy the page link/s for the datasets that you want loaded into Parish Online. The geoxphere team will then be able to upload the data into Parish Online, and where necessary arrange for automatic updates to the data.
2. Search for the Councils website
Some Council's do not publish all their data to data.gov.uk but instead list them on their own website.
Go to the councils website and search on Open-Data, scroll through the datasets available. When you have found the data you would like log a support ticket by emailing support@geoxphere.com using the title of Open-Data for [your parish name] and copy the page link/s for the datasets that you want loaded into Parish Online. The geoxphere team will review the data being requested and will upload the data into Parish Online, and where necessary arrange for automatic updates to the data.
3. Request the data
Where either the two searches have failed to provide you will access to the data you would like you will need to contact the council directly, either by emailing customer service or via a contact us form. We would suggest using the below template in your initial request:
[your Parish name] is seeking the contact details of the lead GIS/Mapping officer at the council, as we are looking to obtain GIS data for our GIS solution, Parish Online.
Once you have the contact details, then log a support call to support@geoxphere.com using the title Open-Data for [your parish name]. Provide the email address and a list of the data you would like to obtain copies of. The geoxphere team will review the data being requested, and either send you a follow up email outlining any issues with the request or email the lead GIS/Mapping officer, cc'ing you in and make the request for data on your behalf. This we can do on your behalf as PSGA partners with Ordnance Survey.
An Important read
Since its introduction in the 2012 White Paper, ‘Unleashing the Potential’, the government has adopted the policy of ‘Open by Default’ for public sector data across all departments.
The definition of what Open Data should be unlashed is vague and ambiguous, but when it comes to GIS data this is set out by an EU Directive called INSPIRE. However, since the UK left the EU the INSPIRE directive has not strictly been adhered to or implemented by many Local Authorities. Central Government Departments on the other hand have been very proactive in opening up data, as testified by the vast amounts of data provided in Parish Online. Local Authorities are mandated to published Annex I GIS datasets and can if they so wish publish Annex II and III data.
Annex I | Annex II | Annex III |
1. Coordinate reference systems 2. Geographical grid systems 3. Geographical names 4. Administrative units 5. Addresses 6. Cadastral parcels 7. Transport networks 8. Hydrography 9. Protected sites | 1. Elevation 2. Land cover 3. Ortho-imagery 4. Geology | 1. Statistical units 2. Buildings 3. Soil 4. Land use 5. Human health and safety 6. Utility and governmental services 7. Environmental monitoring facilities 8. Production and industrial facilities 9. Agricultural and aquaculture facilities 10.Population distribution – demography 11. Area management/ restriction/regulation zones & reporting units 12. Natural risk zones 13. Atmospheric conditions 14. Meteorological geographical features 15. Oceanographic geographical features 16. Sea regions 17. Bio-geographical regions 18. Habitats and biotopes 19. Species distribution 20. Energy Resources 21. Mineral resources |
The complication with INSPIRE
Almost all of the GIS data a Local Authority creates is done so against an Ordinance Survey base map. Typically, against the highly detailed OS product called Master Map. In practice what this means is that data such as Planning Applications, Conservation Areas, Highways Adoption etc, created by LAs have an element (and intellectual property rights) of OS data within them, commonly referred to as OS Derived Data.
The Ordinance Survey have very hard and fast rules on making freely available data that contains their data, that could then be reused in applications such as Google Maps, Open Street Map or sold on, resulting in loss of revenue. To this end, all those datasets that could be published under Annex I of Inspire need to be vetted by OS. A tedious task for both OS and the Local Authority and the reason why many datasets are not made freely available for download.
Understanding the difference between Open-Data and Data-Sharing
Specifically, here we are talking about GIS data.
Open-Data is data that has been deemed not to break or is exempt from OS derived data rules. As such this data can be reshared and reused, even sold on, without consultation with the suppling Local Authority. However, when disseminated appreciate copyrights statements need to be adhered to.
Data-Sharing on the other hand is different and is done so to circumvent OS Derived Data rules and typically requires the end user of the data to sign an OS contractor’s licence. For Parish Councils such a licence already exists in the form of the PSGA (Public Sector Geospatial Agreement).
When OS data is shared with PSGA members, there are restrictions on what can and can’t be done with the data. Typically, such data cannot be reshared, made available for download or printed without the consent of the Local Authority. As such it could be deemed that the data is for internal council use only. If permission is granted for dissemination, then a copyright statement is required to legitimise the data.
Data behind data
Behind the Point, Line or Polygon that you see on the map is additional data, called attributes, and it is the content of the attributes that adds real value to GIS data. Attributes are specific to each point, line or polygon on display and could be a name, location, reference, length, area etc. For Data-Sharing purposes a Local Authority may decide to strip out many of the attribute values, as this data may be commercially confidential or contain personal/sensitive data. Local Authorities are within their rights to do this. This is sometimes the reason why a Local Authority may refuse a request for data.
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