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Clutter-free, customisable mapping enhances customer experience at Gwynedd

Local government: Planning and delivery

Clutter-free, customisable mapping enhances customer experience at Gwynedd
 Using the OS VectorMap family of products has enabled us to quickly create a cost-effective mapping base that benefits both staff and council residents alike. It combines the reliability for which Ordnance Survey is known with Gwynedd Council’s corporate style to produce a straightforward web mapping application that improves access to our information and presents it in a clear, easy-to-understand format that can also be used on mobile devices.
Gwenan Parry, Head of Customer Care

At a glance

Cyngor Gwynedd CouncilFrom a website showing polling stations and registry offices to applications enabling staff to classify home care packages, Gwynedd Council uses mapping to present, manage and analyse a wide range of information.

Printable version: download PDFVisit the Cyngor Gwynedd Council website

Contact us to find out more

Gwynedd Council needed a simple base map to underpin its public-facing web mapping applications, as well as those used by staff, including the customer relationship management (CRM) system. The map, which was to be developed in-house, had to be simple to use, easily customised to meet the council’s corporate style and show only the information requested by users.

The simple base map was created by downloading OS VectorMap® Local, supplied under the Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA) and OS VectorMap District, a free-to-use mapping dataset from OS OpenData™.

The OS VectorMap family of products offers greater flexibility than traditional raster products to customise the style and content of the mapping. By overlaying the OS VectorMap products with its own information, Gwynedd Council was able to produce detailed yet uncluttered backdrop maps that highlight and display only the specific features selected by users. The resulting web mapping application, which is used right across the council and integrated within the CRM system, holds seven levels of information including major roads and towns, detailed water courses, street names, green or shrub areas and woodland.

For council staff, the mapping is helping to manage customer relationships in areas such as waste collection and pest control by identifying precise locations and associated information about services.

It is also used by the council’s social services department to classify home care packages.

For the public, a dedicated mapping section on the council’s website provides geographic context for a range of services listed under six main headings: Education and Learning, Community and Living, Planning and Environment, Leisure and Culture, Transport and Streets and Council and Democracy. Information can be found by searching via town or postcode, or by simply clicking a point on the map. There is also an option to search for information about where the user lives, including planning applications awaiting decisions and those that have already been decided.

The mapping was downloaded using the Firefox® Add-on, DownThemAll download manager and accelerator, and styled using ArcMap. Mapping courtesy of Gwynedd Council.

OS Street View® overlaid with the council’s simple base map equivalent.

  • Shows only the selected information presented on clear, uncluttered and easily-interpreted mapping.
  • Provides a faster, easy-to-use and enhanced service with smooth transition between mapping scales.
  • Reduces data storage requirements by compressing images without losing quality.
  • Easily customised to meet the council’s corporate style.
  • Provides better streaming for mobile access thanks to simplified mapping.

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For general enquiries, complaints, feedback or suggestions, email: customerservices@ordnancesurvey.co.uk or call us on 08456 05 05 05