Headlines: October 19th, 2007

South-west local authorities led the way in the NLPG and NSG Exemplar Awards run by the Improvement and Development Agency Intelligent Addressing to recognise outstanding service delivery by councils using the National Land and Property Gazetteer and National Street Gazetteer.

Devon County Council won both the Best Business Integration and Best Gazetteer Integration titles in the NSG section, in which the south west was named the best performing region. The best performing authority in the section was Southend-On-Sea . Meanwhile Plymouth City Council took the Best Business Process award in the NLPG section where other winners were Hull City Council, awarded the prize for Most Creative Use and Huntingdonshire District Council, which took the Best Performing Authority. The regional award went to the south east.

Hull’s award recognised its use of both the NLPG and NSG in its response to this year’s floods, which the judges said was an unusual project as there was no business case and planned schedule for these specific activities. Everything was done in hours or days, and was driven by necessity.

Plymouth was praised as a ‘major flag carrier’ for the NLPG by illustrating how significant benefits could be achieved locally through effective implementation of the LLPG as a fully integrated corporate resource. Devon’s awards recognised the fact that with 650 users using one linked system its business integration project is one of the largest and most comprehensive networks of its kind in the country while its use of the Gazetteer is a system developed and built to serve the public in an improved and more efficient way.

Michael Nicholson, Managing Director of Intelligent Addressing’s, said the last year had seen further evidence of the improving status of both the NLPG and NSG. Steve Brandwood, from the IDeA, added, “This year has seen huge progress in the advance of the NLPG and NSG initiatives and these awards continue the focus on the efficiency agenda within local government and its impact across the public sector. The Awards raise the profile of the NLPG and the NSG and go some way to recognising the hard work and vision of those working within local authorities to bring about further transformation.”