London - Warrington Borough Council is using its Local Land and Property
Gazetteer (LLPG) to underpin a project to identify differences in
social and geographical inequalities. The ‘Closing the Gap’ programme
brings together key public sector partners, as well as representatives
from the third sector and local businesses, to develop new ways of
working together to help support the most vulnerable citizens.
In recent years Warrington has prospered and is recognised as one of
the fastest growing economies in the country. However, despite overall
gains in prosperity and improvements in quality of life, these gains
have not been distributed equally. As a result Warrington has stark
inequalities and has implemented a partnership programme to address
this.
A core objective of the ‘Closing the Gap’ programme is to ensure that
by 2030 no parts of Warrington would be included in the lowest 10 per
cent most deprived nationally. The aim is therefore to close the gap
between the affluent and the struggling. To do this, it was necessary
to identify which areas fell into this category and understand who lives
there. Once this exercise was completed it would then be possible to
focus on what services residents already use, what additional services
may provide benefit and how best to engage with individual residents and
communities.
James Wharfe, Senior GIS Analyst at Warrington Borough Council said:
“The LLPG was the most comprehensive address database available and was a
vital component in the early stages of the project. Information derived
from the LLPG was combined with social marketing information, crime,
health, education and emergency services data to identify those areas
requiring attention. We could then create profiles for each area and
look at ways to address the issues.”
Warrington’s ‘Closing the Gap’ programme was rewarded with a Highly
Commended in the 2011 National Gazetteers Citizen Exemplar Award
presented at the recent ‘Everything Happens Somewhere’. The award,
sponsored by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG)
and presented by GeoPlace, recognised the innovative use of the National
Gazetteers to improve services to citizens.
GeoPlace is a public sector limited liability partnership between the
Local Government Association and Ordnance Survey. GeoPlace’s role is to
create and maintain the National Address Gazetteer Database and the
National Street Gazetteer for England and Wales, providing definitive
sources of publicly-owned spatial address and street data. Ordnance
Survey utilises the National Address Gazetteer Database in the creation
of the AddressBase range of products available for use in both the
public and commercial sectors. Please visit www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk
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