Public Rights of Way GIS Data and Statements
Robert Whittaker made this Freedom of Information request to Bath and North East Somerset Council This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.
Dear Bath and North East Somerset Council,
Under the Environmental Information Regulations, I would like to request a copy of:
1/ The digitised version / working copy of your Definitive Map of Public Rights of Way as stored for use in a GIS software application or interactive online map. My preferred format for this GIS data would be one of KML, GeoJSON, MapInfo or Shapefile. (I realise that this data is not the actual Definitive Map, but just an unofficial representation of it, which may contain errors. But that is fine for my purposes.)
2/ Your Definitive Statements of Public Rights of Way, assuming these are held in digital form (either scanned copies or native digital versions). I would prefer the information in a re-usable (computer readable) format. If the full Statement information is already contained in the GIS data supplied for part 1, then that will satisfy this part of the request, and there is no need to provide anything separately.
3/ I see from your online map, that the reference numbers for your Rights of Way take the form "CL3/31". Would I be right in assuming that the part before the forward-slash is a parish (or similar) identifier of some sort, and the number after the slash is the Right of Way number within that parish/area? If this is not already present in the data provided under 1 or 2, could you also provide a list of the name of the parish/area that each of the prefix codes corresponds to?
Secondly, under the Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations, I would like to request permission to re-use the information above under the Open Government Licence v3. The purposes for which the information is to be re-used 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.
Yours faithfully,
Robert Whittaker
Dear Mr Whittaker,
I trust that we have answered your queries, however if you have any
further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
If you are unhappy with the response to your request, you may ask for an
internal review within 40 working days of receipt of this request. Please
contact Mr Jeff Wring, Service Director – One West, at Lewis House,
Manvers St, Bath BA1 1JG [1]mailto:[email address].
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to appeal directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF [2]www.ico.org.uk
Please refer to the disclaimer regarding reuse which can be found on the
Council website at:
[3]http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/services/your-...
Yours sincerely
Information Governance Team
One West
Bath & North East Somerset Council
Telephone: 01225 396658
[4]www.bathnes.gov.uk
Bath & North East Somerset – The place to live, work and visit
Please consider the environment before printing this email
From: Robert Whittaker <[FOI #611632 email]>
Sent: 14 October 2019 09:04
To: Information Governance
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Public Rights of
Way GIS Data and Statements
Dear Bath and North East Somerset Council,
Under the Environmental Information Regulations, I would like to request a
copy of:
1/ The digitised version / working copy of your Definitive Map of Public
Rights of Way as stored for use
in a GIS software application or interactive online map. My preferred
format for this GIS data would be
one of KML, GeoJSON, MapInfo or Shapefile. (I realise that this data is
not the actual Definitive Map, but
just an unofficial representation of it, which may contain errors. But
that is fine for my purposes.)
2/ Your Definitive Statements of Public Rights of Way, assuming these are
held in digital form (either
scanned copies or native digital versions). I would prefer the information
in a re-usable (computer
readable) format. If the full Statement information is already contained
in the GIS data supplied for part
1, then that will satisfy this part of the request, and there is no need
to provide anything separately.
3/ I see from your online map, that the reference numbers for your Rights
of Way take the form
"CL3/31". Would I be right in assuming that the part before the
forward-slash is a parish (or similar)
identifier of some sort, and the number after the slash is the Right of
Way number within that
parish/area? If this is not already present in the data provided under 1
or 2, could you also provide a list
of the name of the parish/area that each of the prefix codes corresponds
to?
Secondly, under the Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations, I
would like to request permission
to re-use the information above under the Open Government Licence v3. The
purposes for which the
information is to be re-used 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.
Yours faithfully,
Robert Whittaker
Scanned by the Clearswift SECURE Email Gateway.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.ico.org.uk/
3. http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/services/your-...
4. http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/
Dear Information Governance Team,
Many thanks for your response to my request. Unfortunately there seems to be a problem with the MapInfo GIS files you sent. The .MAP and .TAB files seem to have been given a .MAP.txt and .TAB.txt extensions, and in addition the .MAP files appear to be corrupted and won't open in my GIS software.
I'm not sure what has caused these problems. But would it be possible for you to try sending PROW GIS files again? It may be easier if you could get your Rights of Way / GIS team to create a ZIP file containing all the MapInfo files, as that may be less likely to get altered / corrupted along the way.
Many thanks,
Robert Whittaker
Dear Mr Whittaker,
Freedom of Information Act 2000
Thank you for your email. Please accept our apologies that you are
currently experiencing problems when trying to open the files.
The files may not corrupt if we send them to you directly. Please could
you email [1][Bath and North East Somerset Council request email] and provide us with an
alternative email address. We will then resend the files to that address.
Yours sincerely,
Information Governance Team –
One West
Bath & North East Somerset Council
Telephone: 01225 396658
[2]www.bathnes.gov.uk
Bath & North East Somerset – The place to live, work and visit
Please consider the environment before printing this email.
We work to defend the right to FOI for everyone
Help us protect your right to hold public authorities to account. Donate and support our work.
Donate Now