.. Ordnance Survey – Part IV
September 24, 2014 at 2:49 pm 5 comments
It never rains but it pours..
A screenshot of the OS OpenData map product.. which doesn’t show toilets.. but who knows what the future may bring?
I’m still catching up on everything that’s happened in the past year, but it seems that Ordnance Survey are opening up their toilet data!
Or to be very, very, specific..
“..recently we have enabled our IP to be used in an open data release of one council’s toilet data, and if any others approach us for releasing toilet data this is likely to be on the same terms”
The council was the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness, who applied for a OS derived data exemption, in order to produce their toilet data for the LGA’s incentive scheme.
It’s great that OS have recognised that open toilet data is in the public interest and personally I think they deserve a really big hug.
Past posts on the OS saga:
Entry filed under: Open Data. Tags: Maps, Open Data, Public Toilets.
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Public Toilets and ... 
1.
RobJN | September 25, 2014 at 7:27 pm
Have been trying for ages to get the Ordnance Survey to publish a statement like that about Local Authorities Public Rights of Way data (which some have released under the same OS derived data exemption). Is the quote published online anywhere?
Oh and obviously it would be a whole lot better if the OS just put out a statement granting a derived data licence to all LAs (rather than still require each LA to jump through the hoops).
2.
Gail | September 25, 2014 at 10:12 pm
No, the quote was in an email to me, which I then confirmed I was allowed to repeat in public. I’d assume in practice the process for getting exempt toilet data will mirror that for rights of way data outlined here..? http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/about/governance/foi/questions/2012/0044.html is this still current?
It is referred to here in Section 9 but it’s a little ambiguous: http://schemas.opendata.esd.org.uk/PublicToilets/LocalOpenDataIncentiveSchemePublicToiletsSchemaGuidance.pdf
3.
RobJN | September 25, 2014 at 10:58 pm
Yeah its via the exemption process as described in the section 2.25 of the PSMA User Guide and is fully documented in section 2.5 of the PSMA Licence itself. It’s just a pain having to explain this to all 150 or so English Local Authorities (and that only covers part of the country). It’s an extra step in the process that makes it harder for LAs to release their own data (just because they used OS maps as a base map when they created this data).
4.
Gail | September 25, 2014 at 11:05 pm
Right I see what you mean. That is a pain. I wonder if there’s a tipping point where so many have applied that OS say “sod it..”?! Can ODUG do more?
5.
Terry Jackson | January 18, 2021 at 6:57 am
Following launch last year (2020) of the Geospatial Commission, I’ve re-opened the file on this to ensure that registered, third sector non-profit organisations are covered by the new PSGA with access to OS PointX Data.