The address management teams at the former Eden, South Lakeland and Barrow Councils have each won recognition for the management of their address data.
The GeoPlace Annual Awards rewards best practice and outstanding instances of data management by local authorities each year. At this year’s awards, the team from Eden District Council won Best in Region (North West) for Address Data 2023. The Best in Region Award is given to the authority in each region, which has attained the highest standard in national tests on data excellence. This is the third time the team have won the award. The team also took the Platinum Award for Address Data 2023, for the second consecutive year.
The South Lakeland District Council and Barrow Borough Council teams both received Gold Award for Address Data 2023. The Platinum and Gold Awards are only given to authorities that have consistently reached and maintained the highest standards in national tests on data excellence.
Land, property, street and address information is used to connect different services across the councils, giving communities and individuals a ‘property level view’ of the services available to them.
Emergency services also use the date to respond to incidents and central government uses it to manage projects such as Warm Homes Discounts, while the banking and retail sectors use it to provide mortgages and insurance. It is crucial data enabling the connection of services to people to places.
The newly formed Westmorland & Furness Council address management team have successfully merged their respective address data into a single address dataset for the combined areas.
Cllr Virginia Taylor, Westmorland & Furness Council’s Cabinet Member for Sustainable Communities and Localities, said: “Managing address data to this standard takes skill, and commitment. The Platinum and 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.
“All three former district and borough council teams have been working to the highest standards and I'm proud they have all come together to deliver high-quality data for Westmorland & Furness Council and for the vitally important national database. Their work helps us to effectively plan and target the council’s service delivery priorities and I thank them all for their hard work, dedication and professionalism.”
Gazetteer Officers Debbie Renwick, Holly Davies and Lisa Holman said of winning the awards, “We’re immensely proud to have achieved these awards individually in recognition of all the hard work we’ve put in to the service over the last 15 years. Especially with all the extra work that has gone in to form the new Property Gazetteer for Westmorland and Furness Council. We look forward to maintaining the exceptionally high standards that we have set ourselves, working as a single team for Westmorland and Furness Council.”