More than 100 local authorities in England and Wales have signed up for Emapsite’s Contractor Link, a free self-service mapping portal that supports the new Public Sector Mapping Agreement, allowing them to better manage their contractors’ access to and use of licensed mapping.
The PSMA provides geographic data from Ordnance Survey to all public sector organisations in England and Wales including 375 local authorities. Following the launch of the PSMA in April 2011, Emapsite has now integrated the agreement’s sub-contractor terms into its Contractor Link service.
Maria Penn, project manager, Plymouth City Council, said, “We are encouraging our contractors to use this service as it saves us valuable time processing and fulfilling these requests while ensuring we are 100 per cent PSMA-compliant.”
Research by the Local Government Association found that local government alone spends around £3.5 million a year purely on managing and licensing geographic data to contractors. In contrast, Contractor Link lets local authorities give their contractors secure access to all data contained in the PSMA at no cost, with a nominal service charge paid by the contractor.
James Cutler, chief executive, Emapsite, said, “Contractor Link is completely auditable, the government organisation retains total control over who has access to the data and all necessary administration on PSMA compliance is done by us.”
