Published: Thursday, 15th June 2023
The GeoPlace Annual Awards reward best practice and outstanding instances of data management by local authorities.
The address management team at the Borough Council of King's Lynn & West Norfolk has won a Gold Award for excellence in management of its address information.
The Gold Award for Address Data is only given to authorities that have reached and maintained the highest standards in national tests on data excellence, supplying regular updates to GeoPlace, the national hub managing receipt of Address and Street data from all authorities in England and Wales.
Gold Standard – an outstanding achievement.
Local planning authorities have a contractual requirement to appoint an Address Custodian, who is responsible for submitting accurate monthly information to GeoPlace.
Everything happens somewhere. Land, property, street and address information is used to connect different services across the council – giving communities and individuals a ‘property level view’ of the services available to them. Not only is this data used by local authorities, but also by the emergency services to respond to incidents, central government to manage projects such as Warm Homes Discounts and banking and retail sector to provide mortgages and insurance. It is crucial data enabling the connection of services to people to places.
Without the work of Street and Address Custodians, we would not have the high-quality data that is essential for the efficient and effective operation of all those services in Great Britain.
This is why the Gold Award for Address Data is important. It is formal recognition of the authoritative, valued nature of an authority’s addressing database. It recognises the hard work and skill that goes into maintaining a constantly changing dataset. Each month GeoPlace receives around 2 million record changes, mainly from the local authority Custodians responsible for making sure change in authorities to managed, recorded and reported.
The country’s addresses – the authoritative reference points for those addresses – are one of the most important assets in our society. Dedication and coordination are needed to create a seamless delivery of related services to the public.
In announcing the Award to the Borough Council of King's Lynn & West Norfolk, Nick Chapallaz, Managing Director of GeoPlace stated:
"Every year, it gives us immense pleasure to highlight the work being done by Street and Address Custodians. The Borough Council of King's Lynn & West Norfolk has set an example for data management that deserves recognition on a national stage. Managing addressing information data to this standard takes skill, and commitment. The Gold Award recognises excellence and is an appreciation of the effort going into a sometimes over-looked process, but one that delivers massive local and national benefits, right across the public and private sectors.”
Cllr Jim Moriarty, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Development, added:
"It is great to see the outstanding efforts of the team recognised in this way. Address management is one of those 'unseen' activities that people don't generally think about. It is however vital to the delivery of so many services and has to be accurate. I would like to add my thanks and congratulations to the team involved."