News

February 2007

• Local Plan news

  We've recently completed Local Plans for Slough Borough Council, Thanet District Council, and The London Borough of Barnet as well as an update for West Lancashire District Council. You can see them in our Portfolio.

• LDF news

  We've also been busy on LDF projects. In January we completed a Core Strategy stage for Tynedale District Council while updating Alnwick District Council's LDF site with their Core Strategy Submission Document. As part of this update we created an online Representation Form. Users were able to link directly from relevant sections in the Submission Document directly to the Form which automatically recorded the policy that was being commented upon.

  We are also working in conjunction JDi Solutions for Suffolk County Council on the Minerals and Waste Development Framework of their LDF. In October last year JDi's e-consultation software helped South Cambridgeshire DC to become the first Local Authority in the country to have their LDF Core Strategy passed by the inspectors.

• Other news

  The Lead Partnership and JDi Solutions gave a joint presentation to the North Wales Planning Officers Group demonstrating their respective systems for publishing interactive LDF maps and documents and for e-consultation

  The Lead Partnership, in conjunction with Global Mapping, has won Foundation Accreditation with The Planning Portal for its Content Management System for LDF. We are actively working with Global Mapping and our clients for full accreditation. Watch this space in the coming months for more news on our progress.

August 2006

• Working with Global Mapping we have now completed the Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council Local Plan Web Site using our new Content Management System (CMS). Nuneaton & Bedworth are very pleased with their site, offering the following words of praise:

  I'm very impressed with interactive Website version of the Local Plan. It has met or surpassed all my expectations. Colleagues I have demonstrated it to are eager to use it as their everyday working document in preference to the paper version. The speed, ease of use and the facility to target specific locations and applicable policies are the most successful qualities of the site. Our working relationship has been first class and professional, with all my queries being attended satisfactorily."

• The CMS will soon be made available under license for Local Authorities to maintain and update the Document, Map Layer and Linking content of their Local Plan or LDF. In addition the CMS also conforms to PARSOL's XML/GML schema meaning that the CMS can make your LDF data ready for publication on the Planning Portal. The CMS can handle Documents already prepared in products such as Microsoft Word and can also accept Documents already published as HTML on current Web Sites.

• The CMS was recently demonstrated at The Planning Convention 2006 and attracted much interest from Local, Regional and Central Government as well as companies and organisations who work within the Planning sector.

• We have recently started Local Plan/LDF projects for West Oxfordshire and Tynedale Councils and have just been awarded the UDP for Vale of Glamorgan. Keep coming back to see these new Web Sites when they are ready via our Portfolio section.

March 2006

• 2006 has started where 2005 left off. Very busy! Congratulations to our Local Authority clients who were successful with their Pendleton Review. We completed 14 interactive Local Plan and Local Development Framework websites for the year end deadline. You can see the sites in our Portfolio section.

• Our work on Interactive Local Plans/LDF continues with ongoing projects for Sheffield, Pendle and Nuneaton and Bedworth Councils.

• The Interactive Mapping Interface we have developed for Rossendale Council's Local Plan has been enhanced to include the facility to search and display the Planning Applications within the District. You can see how it all works here. Dylan is constantly improving the functionality and adaptability of the sites, particularly in the display, so expect to see more changes soon in our next series of websites.

• For a taste of the new map display you can visit www.walkingnorthwales.com where we provided the mapping interface to show the locations of where to walk in North Wales. The map will soon be enhanced with further information as it is gathered by the client. We are also undertaking a new set of walking maps for Padarn Country Park and will also be providing them with a website version as well.

• Elsewhere we have just completed some 400 Tir Gofal maps for the Countryside Council for Wales. New cycle and walk maps have been produced for Warwickshire District Council and the IMAGIN project with Ireland sails on.

• Alan is attending Geo2006, the Middle East Oil and Gas Conference in Bahrain at the end of March and may go onto Dubai for the big GIS show if time permits.

August 2005

• We have completed the update of the Warwick District Local Plan website. Uniquely, the website uses the same graphic files that were generated for the printed version of the Local Plan, but still retains the same interactive functionality as if the images were generated 'on the fly' from GIS data. This is a useful interface for Local Authorities who have adopted their Local Plan and wish to display the same maps as appear in the printed version.

• Through our associate company Global Mapping, we have been awarded contracts to produce Local Plan websites for Welwyn Hatfield District Council and Maldon District Council. These websites will show our latest developments in improving the display quality of the maps.

• As part of our ongoing contribution with IMAGIN (visit the IMAGIN website) we are currently collating and structuring map and other data for a marine survey off the North Wales coast in September.

• We are developing a prototype for an interactive golf website and CD-ROM. The prototype will include an interactive course planner and fly-throughs of each hole.

May 2005

• Following a ten week placement, Dylan Parry has now joined The Lead Partnership full-time to help develop our Internet Solutions service. A graduate in Computer Systems with Psychology from Bangor University, Dylan brings programming and web building skills to the firm. Dylan has quickly established himself as a vital member of the team having already cut his teeth on the production of websites for Conwy County Council, Alnwick District Council and Wellingborough Borough Council.

  These latest Council websites can be viewed via our Portfolio section.

• In its capacity as a member of Geoscience Wales The Lead Partnership is providing GIS, Internet and related consultancy services for the IMAGIN project. IMAGIN is an innovative Interreg-funded project led by the Marine Institute and managed by the Coastal & Marine Resources Centre at the University of Cork. In addition to Geoscience Wales the other main partner is the Geological Survey of Ireland.

  The project's main objective is to create a strategic framework, within which development and exploitation of marine aggregate resources from the Irish Sea may be managed sustainably with minimum risk of impact on marine and coastal environments, ecosystems and other marine users.

  

• The Lead Partnership has just completed a password protected website for streetcar®. Initially we were approached to produce a series of printed maps of London displaying census data and streetcar® data to help them monitor car hire activity. We proposed a web-based solution that would negate the restrictiveness and the expense of hard copy printing and would give them greater flexibility in analyzing data across the capital whilst still retaining print functions.

September 2004

We've been busy working with our technical partners in developing a new online mapping system as well as fulfilling our ongoing project commitments.

We're pleased to announce that we have successfully completed our R&D grant. We've designed and built a Local Plan website using the new technology. We're very excited about its potential as is, Chorley Borough Council, who is the first client to benefit from it.

We'd like to thank them for their contribution and their active involvement in its construction. You can have a look at our efforts here.

January 2004

The Lead Partnership has been awarded a contract by Brecon Beacons National Park to produce the maps and written statement for their next Local Plan.

The Lead Partnership is currently working with Global Mapping on a Local Plan for West Lancashire Council.

October 2003

The Lead Parternership has been awarded a grant by the Welsh Development Agency to develop its ideas for vector based Internet mapping. The Partnerhip will be working with its Internet partners to achieve its grant objectives in Spring 2004.