GeODC help create pinpoint-accurate digital maps of Cornwall

GeODC re-aligned thousands of council mapped records and captured around 24,000 planning records as part of a major project to provide accurate information for a new online expert planning system and customer relationship management CRM system. 
 
Carrick Council based in the cathedral city of Truro is a mainly rural district with a strong agricultural base and a growing tourism industry.  Last year Ordnance Survey undertook a Positional Accuracy Improvement (PAI) programme to improve the absolute accuracy of maps in order to deliver an improved and consistent standard of mapping.  Most of Carrick's maps were affected and therefore required re-alignment of council-mapped records.
 
"The impact of the OS PAI programme on Carrick Council was considerable," said Michael Crossthwaite, Technical Officer in the Planning Department of Carrick District Council. "70 to 80% of our base mapping was affected which in turn meant that the same percentage of Council generated maps and information were also affected."
 
GeODC processed in the region of 30,000 individual map polygons that had originally been digitised from the now inaccurate OS maps. These included over 20,000 planning records together with grounds maintenance, tree preservation and Council property information. In addition GeODC also captured approximately 24,000 site plots, associated with planning applications processed by the District Council, to the revised OS base maps.  With integration between Carrick's front office CRM and back office systems, the data will help to significantly improve customer service and maximise usage of Council resources.
 
"The combination of the PAI work done by GeODC and the additional data capture exercise has enabled us to improve our levels of customer service and increase our operational efficiencies," continued Crossthwaite. "Since the completion of these projects we have launched an online expert planning system and we have integrated our front office CRM tool with back office systems. This means residents can quickly identify if planning permission or building regulations are required either online or by calling or visiting our First Stop Shop."
 
GeODC is a specialist data capture and conversion company providing a range of services for the GIS and Local Government market. The company is a partnership between Oxford Data Capture Ltd and Genesys International Corporation, combining Oxford Data Capture's reputation in providing flexible data capture, conversion and consultancy projects in the UK with the global data generation, manipulation, management and maintenance facilities of Genesys. GeODC have more than 25 years experience delivering data solutions to both public and private sector organisations.