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Northumberland National Park Authority reaps the rewards of using AddressBase

Local government: Citizen services

Northumberland National Park Authority reaps the rewards of using AddressBase
 Using AddressBase data has not only saved us time in the planning process but it’s also enabled us to achieve things we’ve never done before.
Ed Hudspeth, GIS Officer

At a glance

Northumberland National Park AuthorityBy using AddressBase® in its new automated planning system and linking its business data to the Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN), Northumberland National Park Authority (NNPA) has reduced the amount of time and effort spent in processing planning applications.

Printable version: download PDFVisit the Northumberland National Park Authority website

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NNPA is a statutory planning authority with responsibility for all planning applications within the National Park boundary. A manual procedure to process its planning applications and the use of non-standard addresses meant that duplicate and incorrect address information was entered into the planning system and led to inefficiencies.

Not using an industry-standard primary key meant that it was difficult for NNPA to ‘look up’ the planning history of a given site and link property-planning information with its other business data linked to an address.

By deploying a fully-automated planning system and adopting Ordnance Survey’s new AddressBase Plus product, NNPA has been able to standardise all its planning applications against the definitive spatial address dataset for Great Britain. This, in turn, has meant that the planning process has become more efficient and saved NNPA a considerable amount of time and effort.

By using the UPRN that is present in AddressBase Plus, NNPA has linked its current planning applications to locally-held historical planning information. Furthermore, NNPA now has the ability to link additional information held against a property, such as broadband speed, level of mobile phone coverage, property insulation and solar energy generating potential to the UPRN.

In addition, by using the building classification information that is present in AddressBase Plus, NNPA has been able to identify specific commercial addresses in the gateway settlements around the edge of the National Park. This is the first time that NNPA has been able to directly market tourism and accommodation providers in this way, allowing it to promote the National Park to the businesses that interact directly with the visitors to the area.

Using AddressBase Plus within the new planning system to locate and digitise an application against OS MasterMap Topography Layer data

  • Deployment of AddressBase Plus in an automated planning system has streamlined the planning process at NNPA, saving time and effort.
  • Adoption of AddressBase Plus and the UPRN has allowed NNPA to link current planning applications with historical information and other property-based business information.
  • AddressBase Plus classification information has, for the first time, allowed NNPA to target specific commercial organisations and promote the National Park more widely in the region.
  • Future use of AddressBase Plus and the UPRN will allow NNPA to link with supplementary local authority-owned datasets.

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