GeoPlace and JAG (UK) Join Together to Streamline Street Works

LONDON, ENGLAND, March 12, 2013 (Press-News.org) On 11th March, the Joint Authorities Group (UK) [JAG (UK)] will commence a Memorandum of Understanding with GeoPlace LLP for GeoPlace to provide services to JAG (UK) members.

JAG(UK) represents all 209 Street and Road Authorities in Street and Road Works matters relating to the New Roads and Street Works Act: 1991 and the relevant parts of the Traffic Management Act 2004. JAG (UK) is the mechanism through which Street and Road Authorities are represented on the Highway Authorities and Utilities Committee(UK) [HAUC(UK)] which in turn advises the Department for Transport and the Government in Street and Road Works matters.

GeoPlace maintains the National Street Gazetteer (NSG). The NSG contains definitive information for streets in England and Wales. Primarily it allows local authorities to manage all road works carried out by themselves and street works by statutory undertakers in an efficient manner on the national road network.

The NSG and JAG (UK) communities are integral to everything that happens on streets. By working closely together, local authorities can be provided with better support services from a co-ordinated centre. The existing JAG (UK) manager, David Capon, will transfer to GeoPlace and work closely with the Simon Bailey, the NSG Custodian, to help local authorities identify common goals and deliver robust and efficient solutions, giving local authorities a louder voice in presenting logical joined-up solutions to central government and other parties.

In announcing the move, Roger Culpin, the Chair of JAG (UK) said "JAG (UK) would like to thank Mouchel for their support over the past 3 years, however, this is an important move for JAG (UK) as we will, in effect be going back to our roots. GeoPlace is an LLP jointly owned by the Local Government Association (LGA) and Ordnance Survey and the LGA is where JAG (UK) started in its original form of the National Street Works Highways Group over 11 years ago. With the additional support of Ordnance Survey's input, we are very pleased to be moving back home. The objectives that JAG (UK) wants to achieve will all the more be helped through this relationship and we hope, with additional support from GeoPlace staff, to provide more and better services to the JAG (UK) community."

Richard Mason, GeoPlace Managing Director stated that "This is a great move for the NSG and will strengthen the community of GeoPlace contacts. The NSG is built around the street works information and key users for this data are Street Works Managers. It is important that we are fully engaged with the JAG (UK) community, as their knowledge, information and data is essential to improvement of the NSG and driving forward better street services to the consumer. We are very keen to explore streamlining processes in the managing of street works as well as build upon the data that is held within the NSG.

JAG (UK) will still remain an independent subscription organisation, but will be able to utilise support services from GeoPlace to help with its role in coordinating works for asset or utility network management and other events taking place on the highway.

GeoPlace
GeoPlace is a public sector limited liability partnership between the Local Government Association and Ordnance Survey. GeoPlace's role is to create and maintain the National Address Gazetteer and the National Street Gazetteer for England and Wales, providing definitive sources of publicly-owned spatial address and street data for Great Britain.

Joint Authorities Group (UK)
JAG (UK) represents the organisations responsible for the management of roads and streets of the United Kingdom. JAG(UK)'s member organisations are primarily local authorities and similar bodies whose principal activities are governed by highways, street, road and traffic management legislation.

National Street Gazetteer
The National Street Gazetteer (NSG) contains definitive information for streets in England and Wales and primarily allows local authorities to manage all street works carried out by themselves and by statutory undertakers in an efficient manner on their network.