26 August 2009

Council project to improve city garages wins award

Bristol City Council is the winner of an innovation award for its investigation into the best way to improve the use of council-owned garages.

The award, organised jointly by national mapping agency Ordnance Survey and aerial imagery experts Blom Aerofilms, was designed to recognise the most innovative use of Pictometry – detailed oblique aerial photos taken from a 45-degree angle, providing a bird’s eye view from all four points of the compass.

Bristol City Council won thanks to its use of the technology within the Garage Strategy Team, which has benefited both from lower costs and efficiency improvements since adopting the use of oblique imagery.

The team is assessing the council’s 300 garage sites and formulating long-term plans for each of them. The ability to view a site from the desktop has cut the need for site visits, which has led to considerable savings in both time and money.

Sally Gilbert, Bristol City Council’s Garage Strategy Project Manager, says: “We have used it every day, both as an alternative to visiting each location but also as a way of briefing and sharing our information with the stakeholder panel. These are made up of garage tenants, with local councillors and community representatives attending when a site in their area is being reviewed.

“On this one project we have saved many hundreds of hours, let alone the cost of transportation and the reduction in our carbon emissions from saved journeys.

“The ability to get a clear perspective from all four points of the compass has proved essential when it comes to surveying the sites properly. Not only can Pictometry pick out details not visible from normal overhead images, it also helps identify information not easily seen from the ground, such as encroachments, or where a site is very overgrown.”

Steve Clark, of Ordnance Survey, presented the council with the winner’s plaque alongside Kim Wall of Blom Aerofilms. Steve comments: “We were particularly impressed with the tangible business benefits of using Pictometry for the Garage Strategy project and the reduction of over 500 site visits plus transport costs and staff time.”

Pictometry is now being used across the council by surveyors assessing the condition of tower block roofing, to assist the Parks and Green Spaces Strategy and for asset management.

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Head of Corporate Communications - Rob Andrews

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