Public Rights of Way GIS Data and Descriptions

The request was successful.

Robert Whittaker

Dear Suffolk County Council,

You have previously provided me with electronic copies of your Public Rights of Way GIS data and route descriptions (unofficial working versions of the Definitive Map and Statement) along with permission to re-use them under the Open Government Licence. See https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/d...

Under the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) and the Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations (RoPSIR), I would now like to ask for updated copies of these two datasets and the same permission to re-use them. (To comply with RoPSIR, the purposes for which I wish to re-use the information are (a) to help improve the mapping of Rights of Way in OpenStreetMap, and (b) to convert the datasets to a more convenient format, and then make them available for others to re-use under an open licence.) In both cases I would like the information in a structured re-usable form, so something like KML, MapInfo or Shapefile for the GIS data; and CSV, a spreadsheet, or a database dump for the descriptions would be preferred.

Secondly, in line with your general duty to make environmental datasets available online under EIR 4(1)(a), and with your duty under FOIA 19(2A)(a)(ii) to publish updated versions of requested datasets, could I ask that you provide access to regularly updated versions of these two datasets on your website. This would save myself and anyone else who wanted to make use of them from having to submit recurring EIR/RoPSIR requests every time we needed an update.

Yours faithfully,

Robert Whittaker

Information Management Services, Suffolk County Council

INFORMATION REQUEST – ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Thank you for your request, here is your reference number 15012. Please quote this in any future correspondence you may have with us.

We will process your request in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 as appropriate. We aim to answer your request within 20 working days from the date we received it.

While no charges are made for the submission of requests, the council is entitled to apply reasonable costs for disbursements (i.e. photocopying, postage etc).  Where such costs are under £5.00 the council is pleased to make no charge, however, if costs exceed that limit then these additional costs are payable to the council.  Where charges will apply proper notice will be given to you prior to the information being released.  For more information on charges please use the following link to our website: http://www.suffolk.gov.uk/about/freedom-...

If you have any queries about this request do not hesitate to contact us.  Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Yours sincerely,
Becky PC.foi.

FOI Officer
Performance and Information Management
Suffolk County Council
Constantine House
Constantine Road
Ipswich
IP1 2DH

Tel: 01473 265960
Fax: 01473 216843
Email: [email address]
Web: www.suffolk.gov.uk

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Information Management Services, Suffolk County Council

2 Attachments

INFORMATION REQUEST RESPONSE

Thank you for your request for information, reference number 15012. Please quote this in any future correspondence you may have with us.

Please find attached a copy of our response to the information you requested.

Most information supplied by Suffolk County Council will have been produced within the Council and will continue to be protected by copyright.  You are free to use it for your own purposes, including for private study and non-commercial research, and for any other purpose authorised by an exception in current copyright law.  Documents (except photographs) can be also used in the UK without requiring permission for the purposes of news reporting.  Any other reuse, for example commercial publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder.

If the information you have been sent includes a copyright statement, you must not alter or remove this statement.  For information about re-using copyright see the Office of Public Sector Information website at www.opsi.gov.uk.  The copyright in some documents may rest with a third party.  For information about obtaining permission from a third party see the Intellectual Property Office’s website at www.ipo.gov.uk.

If you are dissatisfied with the way your request has been handled, you have the right to ask for an internal review.  Under Regulation 11(2), internal review requests should be submitted within 40 working days of the date of this letter and should be sent to: Information Management Services, Constantine House, Constantine Road, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP1 2DH or, alternatively, by email at [email address].

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely,
Becky PC.foi.

Performance and Information Management
Suffolk County Council
Constantine House
Constantine Road
Ipswich
IP1 2DH

Tel:     01473 265960
Fax:    01473 216843
Email: [email address]

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Robert Whittaker

Dear Sir/Madam,

Many thanks for your response and for supplying the information requested. I'd like to clarify one point though. In your response document, you say that the information can be re-used under the Open Government Licence (OGL), but the licence PDF file in the zip file you sent is for the OS OpenData Licence, which is not quite the same. The latter is slightly more restrictive than the OGL, but is no longer used by Ordnance Survey -- they now use the plain OGL v3 for their Open Data offerings, and require others releasing derived data do the same. So can you confirm that the Rights of Way data in the Shapefile can indeed be re-used under the Open Government Licence v3 ( http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/o... )? Also, could you confirm that the same licence applies to the information in the spreadsheet with the Definitive Statement descriptions in?

Yours faithfully,

Robert Whittaker

Information Management Services, Suffolk County Council

Dear Mr Whittaker

Suffolk County Council's Highways team can confirm that both the shapefiles and the definitive statements can be re-used under the Open Government Licence v3 as requested.

Kind regards
Becky

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