GIS & LLPG strategy and implementation

The project issues
Development of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) at Thurrock Council has historically been technology-led with no corporate strategy linked to key Council objectives and goals. From 2002 GIS grew ‘organically’ with little or no senior or middle management support and, once key individuals left the Council, developments, management and projects were not progressed. In particular there was no integrated or co-ordinated approach to GIS and LLPG within and between departments and key business systems were not spatially enabled and so not being utilised to their maximum potential.

In early 2006 Thurrock recognised poor performance in this area and called Socitm Consulting in to help shape and deliver a strategy for transformation. A major consideration was that the lack of a coherent plan for GIS and the LLPG might lead to difficulties with IDeA over the Council's obligations under the Mapping Services Agreement (MSA). The LLPG and Local Street Gazetteer (LSG) data projects had not been progressed during the previous two years and had consistently failed to gain support at a strategic level, which resulted in Thurrock not complying with its obligations. Thurrock risked losing control of the LLPG and LSG to Intelligent Addressing who were potentially to take back the role of Custodian and maintain the data on the Council’s behalf.

The decision to call on external assistance reflected the fact that Thurrock Council considers GIS/LLPG/LSG to be a key priority within its overall ICT Strategy and is committed to deliver improvements in these areas.

The Socitm Consulting solution
Socitm Consulting assistance to the Council began in April and May 2006 with the completion of a GIS and LLPG Strategy which identified a high-level plan to pursue a project to provide a robust and sustainable geographic information infrastructure to support the Council’s key business activities, which includes a maintained LLPG and LSG. The strategy was approved by Cabinet in July 2006.

The GIS and LLPG Implementation Project is one of several emerging projects being pursued within the Council’s ICT Programme. The early phases of this project saw Socitm Consulting working as LLPG and LSG Custodians on behalf of the Council. Whilst acting in this role we had to overcome the problems associated with the data having not been maintained for two years, being heavily duplicated and containing many anomalies. There were also no procedures in place to help departments communicate and share information with each other.

Our role included:
 

• Undertaking a full audit of the data contained within Thurrock’s LLPG and LSG databases and preparing a prioritised action plan
• Securing the data within existing LLPG, LSG and Associated Street Data (ASD) databases
  Synchronising the current LLPG with the NLPG by means of a successful update submission.
• Sourcing details of recent address change intelligence and updating the LSG and LLPG datasets accordingly. 
• Making successful submissions to the NSG Hub of full LSG and ASD data 
• Making repeated successful submissions to the NLPG Hub of changes made to the LLPG to bring it up to date. 
• Liaison with staff from the Highways and Street Naming and Numbering functions to develop and agree procedures to maintain the LLPG, LSG and ASD data.

Breaking news:

• Socitm Consulting has been appointed to manage the LLPG and LSG submissions on behalf of Thurrock Council until February 2007 when the Council's new GIS team will be appointed and take over the roles currently provided by Socitm Consulting.

The benefits to the client
Now that work has been completed, Thurrock Council has succeeded in meeting its MSA obligations and is therefore no longer under threat of being penalised by the IDeA and losing its control over its LLPG and LSG. Thurrock has received special thanks from the IDeA for achieving remarkable improvements during the previous five months. The Council has now established a new working environment within which data can be more readily shared between departments and fed into the local and national datasets.

The success of this phase of the GIS and LLPG Implementation Project has been an important early milestone in the implementation of the GIS and LLPG strategy.

Lee Henley, Information Manager at Thurrock Council, comments: “Thurrock Council is a forward thinking Authority in terms of overall ICT delivery, and the implementation of an effective GIS/LLPG/LSG is a key priority within the Council's ICT Strategy. We have made a significant investment to deliver improvements within these areas with the assistance of Socitm Consulting and we are looking forward to reaping the benefits in terms of joined up working, integration and the effective use of Council information to staff/residents/visitors via the new GIS system”.

Project identification
Client organisation: Thurrock Council
Client contact: Lee Henley, Information Manager, Corporate Development, 01375 652500, lhenley@thurrock.gov.uk 
Lead consultant: karen.forbes@socitm.gov.uk
Project nos: 5718 / 5836