Public Rights of Way GIS Data and Statements

The request was successful.

Robert Whittaker

Dear Essex County 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.

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

Your Right To Know, Essex County Council

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your request for information which we will handle under the Environmental Information Regulations 2005.

The Regulation allows us up to 20 working days (excluding statutory holidays), with an additional 20 working days for voluminous or complex requests, to process a valid request for information. We will inform you if we require the additional time for your request. We may be in touch with you should we require any further clarification.

If no clarifications are required, you should expect to receive a response within the statutory time frame.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Please note, requests and responses may be published on our website.

Yours sincerely,

Bethany Gant | Information Governance Assistant
Your Right To Know
Transparency Team
Essex County Council

T: 033301 38989
E: [email address]
W: www.essex.gov.uk

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Your Right To Know, Essex County Council

8 Attachments

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your request for information. Please find our response to your request on the accompanying document(s).
I trust that this information satisfies your request. However, should you require anything further, please contact me and I will endeavour to assist you further.
if you are not satisfied with your response, please contact me so I can try to resolve the issue. Alternatively, if you wish to make a complaint, you can find the details at https://www.essex.gov.uk/Your-Council/Yo...

If, after following our complaints procedure, you are still not satisfied, you are entitled to ask the Information Commissioner to review our decision. You can contact the Information Commissioner at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF; Telephone 0303 123 1113.

Please note that the response and data released to you as part of this request will be published on the Essex County Council website. The website address is https://www.essex.gov.uk/Your-Council/Yo... . All requests will be anonymised and no personal information including contact details will be disclosed as part of this process.

If you would like to take a short customer satisfaction survey please use the link below https://consultations.essex.gov.uk/infor...

Yours sincerely,

Bethany Gant | Information Governance Assistant
Your Right To Know
Transparency Team
Essex County Council

T: 033301 38989
E: [email address]
W: www.essex.gov.uk
This email (including any attachments) is intended only for the recipient(s) named above. It may contain confidential or privileged information and should not be read, copied or otherwise used by any other person unless express permission is given. If you are not a named recipient, please contact the sender and delete the email from your system. The contact details of the sender and recipients constitute personal data. These along with any other personal data in the email (including any attachments) must be handled in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018. It is the recipient's responsibility to ensure that appropriate measures are in place to check for software viruses.

Robert Whittaker

Dear Bethany Gant,

Many thanks for your quick response to my request. Unfortunately there seems to be a problem with the MapInfo GIS files you sent. Two of the files (PROW.MAP.txt and PROW.TAB.txt ) have a .txt extension when they shouldn't have, and in addition the PROW.MAP file appears 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 got 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

Your Right To Know, Essex County Council

1 Attachment

Good Afternoon Mr Whittaker,

Please see attached files.

Kind regards,

Charli Almond | Information Governance Officer
Your Right To Know
Transparency Team
Essex County Council

T: 033301 38989
E: [email address]
W: www.essex.gov.uk

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Robert Whittaker

Dear Charli Almond,

The new files you've sent work fine now -- many thanks for the quick response.

There is one other thing I have to raise though, which is regarding your refusal to licence your working copy of the Definitive Statements for re-use. As far as I can see, the document in question falls under the scope of the The Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015 (RoPSIR), and my request for permission to re-use it has met the requirements of RoPSIR r6.

Since the Essex County Council is not a "library (including a university library), museum or archive" under RoPSIR r7(2), then RoPSIR r7(1) requires that you "must permit re-use where [you] receives a request made in accordance with regulation 6." (See http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/... )

In the light of this, I'd like to ask you to reconsider your refusal to allow re-use of the document. If you decide to maintain your refusal, I'd be grateful if you could explain the basis on which you are doing so under RoPSIR.

Yours sincerely,

Robert Whittaker

Your Right To Know, Essex County Council

Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you for your request to review our handling of your recent request for information reference ECC6879017 05 19, which was received by Essex County Council on 05/06/2019.

Your request is covered by our Review Procedure and we endeavour to respond within 20 working days.

We will review the handling of your request and respond with our formal decision on the aspects you have asked us to address.

Please contact me if you would like further advice or assistance about your request, review or your right to access information held by Essex County Council.

Yours sincerely

Bethany Gant | Information Governance Assistant
Your Right To Know
Transparency Team
Essex County Council

T: 033301 38989
E: [email address]
W: www.essex.gov.uk

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Your Right To Know, Essex County Council

1 Attachment

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your request for an Internal Review. Please find our
response to your request on the accompanying document(s).

If you are not satisfied with this response and wish to make a complaint,
you can find the details at
http://www.essex.gov.uk/customer-service...

 

If, after following our complaints procedure, you are still not satisfied,
you are entitled to ask the Information Commissioner to review our
decision. You can contact the Information Commissioner at Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF; Telephone 0303 123 1113.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Oliver Sharpe

Your Right to Know

Essex County Council

Telephone: 033301 38989

E-mail: [email address]

 

 

This email (including any attachments) is intended only for the
recipient(s) named above. It may contain confidential or privileged
information and should not be read, copied or otherwise used by any other
person unless express permission is given. If you are not a named
recipient, please contact the sender and delete the email from your
system. The contact details of the sender and recipients constitute
personal data. These along with any other personal data in the email
(including any attachments) must be handled in accordance with the Data
Protection Act 2018. It is the recipient's responsibility to ensure that
appropriate measures are in place to check for software viruses.