11 November 2005

Santa Claus is coming to town

New map ideal for route planning

Santa Claus will soon be making his way across the country and, along with the nation’s motorists, he’ll have no problem finding his way – thanks to his copy of Ordnance Survey’s latest map of Britain.

With millions of homes to visit in this country alone, Santa is busy planning his route – and he’ll have the OS Travel Map – Route of Great Britain 2006 to help him.

Just published by Ordnance Survey, the newly revised map is big enough to show the entire country’s road network on just one double-sided sheet but folds small enough to fit into the glove compartment of a car – or in this case, sleigh.
 “Santa is one of many who find this map an essential companion for planning journeys,” says Ordnance Survey’s Gail Meadow. “For a long time, it’s been our most popular title – tens of thousands are sold annually.

“As I’m sure the big man from the North Pole knows, there are an enormous number of changes to the British landscape every year – subsequently we make many amendments to each new edition of this map. So it’s an up-to-date, convenient and inexpensive way to plan long-distance routes wherever – or whoever – you are.”

Among its major changes, the new edition includes the imminent upgrade to the A1 – becoming the A1(M) motorway north of Pontefract; and the New Forest National Park boundary.
 
The whole map is at a scale of 1:625,000 (10 miles to 1 inch or 6.25 km to 1 cm) with all the roads appropriately colour-coded to help route planning. An index features around 6,500 place names highlighted on the map and there are also ten separate urban navigation maps included on the sheet to help motorists find their way through heavily built-up areas such as Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and London.

Also included are details of restricted motorway junctions, along with a route-planning grid to check mileages between almost 50 key towns and cities. Many major tourist attractions around the country are also pinpointed on the map and indexed in the key.

The map costs £4.99 and is available from book shops or through the leisure section of Ordnance Survey's website at www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/leisure

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Chief Press Officer - Scott Sinclair

Email: scott.sinclair@ordnancesurvey.co.uk

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