Mobile Map Scanning Service Rolls Up At
North Wiltshire Development Control

Resolution Bureau Services provides on-site colour scanning of large format OS maps for Development Control at North Wiltshire District Council.

In order to record Planning data, historically, North Wiltshire District Council Development Control department has been capturing information by directly writing it onto paper Ordinance Survey (OS) maps.

With the introduction of sophisticated Geographic Information Systems (GIS) three years ago Planning data has been captured electronically directly into a virtual spatial environment but this left the obvious problem of what to do with the historic records written onto the paper maps. These needed to be some how incorporated into the GIS system in order to complete the record set and provide a single integrated solution.

The GIS system at North Wiltshire DC was capable of holding an electronic overlay in a
scanned file format in this case JPEG files as the images to be captured were colour. This
seemed the obvious way of getting the information into the GIS system without the cost
of getting the images converted to an intelligent CAD or vector type format.

This still left a number of issues when it came to scanning the large format maps.

Firstly, the maps provided the core of the Planning data and were referenced regularly though out the day. It was therefore critical that there was immediate access available to them at all times. In reality this meant that the data could not be taken off site for any period to be scanned, as this would have stopped some parts of the Development Control Department from functioning.

Secondly the plans which in some cases dated back to 1921 and included linen as well as paper were extremely fragile and there were concerns about it surviving collection and transportation to and from the bureau facility. The fragility of the plans also caused a secondary problem as in order to protect the plans the actual scanning process was extremely slow with the paper passing through the scanner on a slow setting.

Thirdly with only 600 A0 plans and no skilled scanning operatives available within the council the costs of the Development Control department gearing up to carry out full colour A0 scanning themselves which would necessitate investing in hardware, software and training was prohibitive.

The Development Control department at North Wiltshire DC already had experience of
working with the traditional Resolution Bureau Services involving off-site scanning of
paper data so called upon them for advice.

Together North Wiltshire DC and Resolution Bureau Services came up with a solution that solved all of the problems with instant access, data fragility and was still cost effective.

The solution consisted of Resolution Bureau Services delivering a skilled operative, hardware and software to site for a week. This provided immediate access to the operation critical data when required as it remained on site at all times. It provided skills that ensured the plans were not damaged and that the best possible results were achieved. It also met the final requirement in that all of the 600 plans were scanned and quality checked within the five days on site that had been specified all within budget. An unforeseen benefit of being on site was that by scanning in a live interactive environment within the department Resolution Bureau services were able to tailor the software to enhance the scanned data that was going to be most useful in the GIS system.

Simon Day at North Wiltshire DC commented “ the results achieved were far better than we could have hoped for, the scans in most cases were actually better than the paper originals and the project came in on time and within budget in fact the team was so pleased when it came to the end of the week they spontaneously erupted into a standing ovation. We are certainly happy to recommend this to anyone facing the same dilemma”.

Resolution Bureau Services complements the other side of the company, which is known as Submit-a-Plan. Submit-a-Plan enables both Building Control and Planning Departments to be able to receive and process electronic applications made over the web via the national portals www.Submit-a-Plan.com and www.Planningportal.gov.uk respectively. The system is now installed in over 150 Local Authorities across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. DataSpace the technical document management system behind Submit-a-Plan is ideal for the storage and retrieval of scanned archives and daily applications.