Government unveils radical plans for mapping data (From Daily Echo)

Government unveils radical plans for mapping data

8:32am Thursday 31st December 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(12)

WORKERS at one of Southampton’s biggest employers face an uncertain start to 2010 after the Government unveiled radical plans to make mapping data from Ordnance Survey freely available.

The proposals could leave a huge hole in the finances of the agency leading to fears that jobs in sales and licensing could be at risk. It comes as OS has just completed a wave of 180 redundancies from the 1,000 employed at its Romsey Road site, pictured, as part of a five-year plan to cut costs by £20m, or five per cent each year.

Unions are already consulting their members at the agency. John Barneveld, assistant secretary of Prospect union’s OS branch, said: “There is so much uncertainty about, that’s the terrible part of it.

We are concerned about any possibility of any future job losses.”

A spokesman for OS said he could not comment on staffing implication until the outcome of the consultation was known.

The move to release mapping data for free – part of the Government’s open data policy – would allow people to interpret public statistics about crime, health and education by electoral or local authority boundaries and postcode areas.

Leisure maps used by walkers, runners, cyclists and mountain bikers could also be free to download from next spring along with mid-scale digital mapping information.

But the plan faces opposition from digital mapping providers, map retailers, and global positioning system device makers, which could all lose revenue.

The Government consultation paper admits it will be difficult to predict the overall effect of the proposals. The 12- week consultation runs until March.

Secretary of State for Communities John Denham has hailed the proposed changes as “nothing less than a radical change in the relationship between the citizen and state”.

Mr Denham, who represents many OS workers who live in his Itchen constituency, said: “Data from government enables people to understand the decisions taken on their behalf, to challenge them and press for change. Information about local services gives people the tools to compare outcomes across different areas and ask why things can’t be done differently where they live.”

● Work on the agency’s £45m new headquarters next to the M271 on the edge of the Southampton is still progressing. Staff are set to move into the offices at the end of 2010.