Public highway questions

I require the following information from the Ordnance Survey in a letter of confirmation:

1) I need to advise you that xxxxxx Lane on your Ordnance Survey map is not a highway maintainable at the public expense and is not a S36 highway.   It is solely a "footpath" known and recorded under the Definitive Map and Statement from NPAC 1950 survey as a Public Carriage mainly used as a footpath and which was downgraded at review in 1968 to a footpath. 

2a (i) The original record of xxxxxx Urban District Council giving information on its highways maintainable at the public expense or did this originate from the OS surveys of 1884, published 1886, reprinted 1900 and another published in 1901. I don’t have the next edition to hand but believe it was in the 1920s.

2a (ii) Bearing in mind that xxxxxx District Council was created in the C19th and passed its highways responsibilities to the County Highway Authority in 1974 I believe that the Ordnance Survey must have had communication with the xxxxxx District Council Highways Surveyor historically up to 1974 with other new housing developments in xxxxxx to that date, particularly post-war of 1945.

2b. Upon the xxxxxx County Council Highways Authority taking control in 1974 what if any records does the Ordnance Survey hold, because surely the licensee would require updated maps from the Ordnance Survey surveys?

2b (i) How would the Ordnance Survey get its information and vice versa from 1974?

2c. I believe that the xxxxxx County Council added ‘xxxxxx’ to its digital mapping in supply to the District Council under S36 (7).

2d. I believe that the digital map published on 07.04.2003 with xxxxxx coloured in at the south was produced under license at their offices – could you please confirm how xxxxxx came to be included on your 2008 download when xxxxxx completed a download for their production of 2005 xxxxxx map which did not have xxxxxx on that download?

2e. In your xxxxxx County Council records, do you have any other alterations to other roads – how did they advise you and when with dates?

2f. Do you have contact with xxxxxx County Council as a licensee – how old it is – what terms and conditions they have broken by providing incorrect material fact to the OS?

2g. Please provide a copy of how licensee system operates.

3.  When did the Ordnance Survey records go digital?

Thank you for your e-mail dated 19^th May 2011.We respond to each of your questions below, but please note that Ordnance Survey does not hold all of the requested information and this is detailed where applicable.

1.Following receipt of this information we arranged for a regional surveyor to make a visit to this area to view and survey the ground features, and where necessary provide information to update our products.From our surveyors visit, the following action has been taken with regard to OS MasterMap® Integrated Transport Network™ Layer.

Xxxxxx Lane has been amended from a private road to depict a local public street, from its junction with xxxxxx Road to the junction with xxxxxx, which our surveyor has confirmed. This change has considered the double yellow lines and ‘dead end’ road signage which is present at the northern end of the road, the cars which park along the road and required school access.

The lower part of xxxxxx Lane and xxxxxx are already detailed as ‘private roads – restricted’ which we will not be amending.Where there is an archway with closed gates from xxxxxx on to xxxxxx Street, we will delete the connection so there will be no route for cars - public or private, between xxxxxx Road and xxxxxx Street, although we have noted the pedestrian access more or less along side it.

This information is likely to be available within our mapping products from Autumn 2011.
As this area of your correspondence is not a request for information but a statement of fact provided by you, we are unable to deal with this further under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.

2a (i). I regret to inform you that this information is not held by Ordnance Survey. This is because Ordnance Survey had no involvement with xxxxxx District Council or its forebears and in the planning process for new roads/developments as they have occurred, and we have never kept records of adopted maintainable highways at public expense.

Local authorities did not have formal agreements with Ordnance Survey with regard to the provision by Ordnance Survey of defined portfolios of mapping products until 1992. Therefore no records in relation to what mapping or uses of that mapping the Council of the time had, or undertook, exist at Ordnance Survey.

2 a (ii). I regret to inform you that no records are held in relation to any communications between Ordnance Survey and xxxxxx District Council Highways Surveyor.
Prior to 1992 there was no agreement between Ordnance Survey and local authorities and there was no mandatory requirement for local authorities to notify Ordnance Survey of any changes to roads, building or any other features.

2 b. I regret to inform you that this information is not held by Ordnance Survey.  Ordnance Survey holds no historic records of purchases of mapping by e.g.: local authorities who may in fact have acquired their normal mapping supplies from an Ordnance Survey agent. 
However I can advise that there has been no standard protocol in place by which any Local Authority could commission a revision of specific map sheets or data for their own purposes.

2 b (i). In 1974, as before and since, Ordnance Survey would have obtained information for ingestion in its products via either a photogrammetric (aerial) or a physical ground survey. 
In the latter case, an Ordnance Survey surveyor would visit a site and survey the area according to the then current capture specification, this information would then be ingested in the Ordnance Survey product.

2c. We are unable to comment on any aspect of xxxxxx County Council’s actions in relation to adding xxxxxx to its mapping in supply to the District Council under S36 (7).

2d. Assuming that xxxxxx took Ordnance Survey data to use as the basis for their mapping, then there are a number of possibilities:
a) That xxxxxx was included in the data which they received but they did not use the name in their product
b) That xxxxxx was excluded from the data which they received as it did not meet the specification of the data they required from Ordnance Survey
c) xxxxxx was not included in the data from which the xxxxxx supply was prepared.

I regret that Ordnance Survey does not retain records to inform this matter.

2e.I regret to inform you that Ordnance Survey does not hold this information. There is no requirement for a public authority to notify Ordnance Survey of any changes to roads, it is within the remit of Ordnance Survey to capture the changes by survey. 

However, some local authorities do provide this information to Ordnance Survey via our Customer Service Centre. This would be provided purely for our information to inform the next revision survey and is not retained by Ordnance Survey once the map has been revised.

2f. I regret to inform you that this information is not held. Xxxxxx County Council are currently members of the Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA), a collective purchasing agreement which allows members to use the data licensed through an agreement with Ordnance Survey for their core public sector business.  Prior to 1 April 2011 they were members of a similar agreement known as the (Local Government) Mapping Services Agreement (MSA), and of other agreements predating the MSA back to 1992.

Ordnance Survey does not hold ‘historic’ records prior to the above time detailing such agreements and licensing arrangements. Therefore, we are unable to say how ‘old’ our ‘contact’ with the County Council in question is.

2g. Ordnance Survey does hold this information however it is exempt under Section 21 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000 ‘Information accessible to applicant by other means’. This is because our licensing information is fully explained on our website, and you can access this from the following link:
http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/licensing/index.html

3. Ordnance Survey commenced a programme of national conversion of all of its paper map series including the most detailed large scales mapping, in the late 1960s, with early experiments in digital cartography. 

The conversion, programme began “in anger” in the early 1970s and was completed in the mid 1990s.  Areas of the country were initially converted piecemeal but from 1987 a more systematic programme was initiated. 
Because the technology platforms have changed several times since the initial digitising, Ordnance Survey does not now hold precise records of the initial digitising of specific maps or areas.  In addition, initially the digital data was used to generate published chart paper maps.  Only since the mid 1980s has digital data itself been a supplied product.

Please note your enquiry has been processed according to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.As all the requested information has been provided or is not held, we have determined that in all the circumstances of this case the Public interest consideration (section 17 FOIA) is not applicable in this instance.

If you are unhappy with our response, you may raise an appeal to our Appeals Officer at:

FOI Appeals Officer
Customer Service Centre
Ordnance Survey
Adanac Drive
SOUTHAMPTON
SO16 0AS

Please include the reference number below. The Appeals Officer will ensure that the process has been followed correctly, questioning any decisions taken regarding the original response and recommending disclosure of additional information if appropriate.

Thank you for your enquiry.

Reference number: FOI11169/May 2011