Knowsley Council has been given a ‘Gold Award’ in recognition of the way it manages its street information database. The Award was announced at a special webinar celebrating the achievements of local authority Address and Street Data Custodians, which took place instead of GeoPlace’s usual annual conference on 29th April 2020.
The Gold Award is only given to authorities that have consistently reached and maintained the highest standards in national tests on data excellence, supplying regular updates to the national hub managing receipt of street data from all authorities in England and Wales.
‘Gold’ Standard – an outstanding achievement
Land, property, street and address information connects different services – giving local communities and individuals a ‘property level view’ of the services available to them. Each year, GeoPlace’s Exemplar Awards highlight best practice and excellent examples of this data management by individual local authorities.
Dedication and coordination are needed to curate the data that drives the nation’s addressing infrastructure. Without this data, and the work of Street and Address Custodians, our nation’s most essential services could not operate effectively or efficiently. The Awards highlight the Custodians’ roles in this task, rewarding impressive and extensive personal commitment to constantly improving the quality of addressing data.
High quality street information has never been more important, when authorities are responsible for managing flow of traffic on and use of the network. Coronavirus is imposing massive demands on the public sector, but accurate street information is key to supporting the country’s response to COVID-19, organisations need to have complete confidence in the roads and streets network and roadworks need to be managed efficiently.
This is why the Gold Award is so important. It is recognition of the hard work and skill that goes into maintaining a constantly changing dataset – delivering tangible results directly back into the community. The Award puts a spotlight on services using the data, further helping to promote the importance of Custodians’ work.
In announcing the Award to Knowsley Council, Nick Chappallaz, Managing Director of GeoPlace comments: “Every year, it gives us immense pleasure to highlight the work being done by Street and Address Custodians. Knowsley Council has set an example for data management that deserves recognition on a national stage. Managing addressing information data to this standard takes skill, and commitment. The Gold Award recognises excellence and is an appreciation of the effort going into an often over-looked process, but one that delivers local and national benefits – truly bringing location to life.”