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2009
January
Happy New Year!
We recently completed an Adopted UDP website for Lambeth Council which you can view here.
Slough Borough Council continue to extend the range of mapping websites built using our Content Management System and hosted on our servers. Recently we produced an interactive Heat Loss map that shows just how energy efficient (or otherwise) each house is. The map was generated by combining a thermal imagery map with OS MasterMap data, thus ensuring that each individual property displayed its level of heat loss. You can see the Heat Loss Map here.
Contact us to discuss your own LDF, LDP or indeed any online mapping requirements.
In February we'll be launching a new mapping system for searching, viewing and downloading maps for printing. Check back towards the end of the month to find out more.
2008
June
You can view our latest LDF website for East Northamptonshire Council here.
We've just made an update to West Oxford Council's LDF Submission's Site website. This website has been built with the same applications as their Local Plan website. Check it out here.
Try our drawing tools for web browsers at The People's Map website (http://peoplesmap.com/). Just click on the 'Edit' tab, register with The People's Map and start digitising your own maps. It really is that easy!
We've just completed our half day training of Planners at Conwy County Council in using the Document Publication System of our CMS for their LDP. We'll be undertaking another half-day's training later this year in the Map Publication System. In March of this year Conwy licensed both our LDP system and JDi Solution's bilingual e-consultation system.
Contact us to discuss your own LDF or LDP requirements.
Alan has just returned from Cannes (lucky for some!) where he picked up the next phase in a multi-disciplinary mapping project of Guinea. Essentially Blue Fox will be building new topographical databases of Guinea in GIS as well as training key personnel in the use of GIS, digital mapping and cartography.
Our programmers are locked away developing new applications which will be seeing the light of day over the coming weeks and months. We're very excited about all of them so keep checking back to our website to see how they will make online mapping even more dynamic and user-friendly.
2007
June
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As of 8th October, 2007, Blue Fox Technology Ltd will be moving to new offices. As such, the telephone number and postal address for the company will be changing. Our new contact details are:
- 27 Princes Drive,
- Colwyn Bay
- LL29 8HT
- Tel/Fax: 01492 532100
We have arranged for mail to be redirected from our old offices, and the old telephone number will also be redirected, however we suggest that you update your contacts with our new details.
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It is business as usual at The Lead Partnership although there has been one major change.
As of April 1st 2007 our business has been incorporated to become Blue Fox Technology Ltd.
Alan and David Cooper (who were the Partners) are now the Directors of the new company.
Why the change?
There are a number of reasons, mainly financial and strategic, but the change does not alter the services we offer to our clients. More and more of our business is in the development of web technologies and tools for web mapping. By converting to a company set-up we are able to finance and to progress these developments much better than when we were a partnership.
Over the coming weeks we will be revamping our website to reflect how our work in cartography, GIS and the Internet is rapidly changing and growing under the Blue Fox Technology name.
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New Office
We now have a second office in Nantwich from where David will be based. You can contact him on his new number 01270 611011. The new office will also be offering the OS Options service from July.
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Sheffield City Council
We have published Sheffield's interactive Proposals Map online for their LDF consultation. The Proposals Map itself is being consulted upon but it is also being used to assist in the online consultation of two LDF documents (City Sites and City Policies). These documents have been created by the consultation module of Limehouse Publisher. Working with the Council's planning department we have successfully created 2-way links between the Proposals Map and the relevant sections of the consultation documents.
The system went live on June 8th for a 6 week consultation period. Click here to see how it all works.
February
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Local Plan news
We've recently completed Local Plans for Slough Borough Council, Thanet District Council, and The London Borough of Barnet as well as an update for West Lancashire District Council. You can see them in our Portfolio.
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LDF news
We've also been busy on LDF projects. In January we completed a Core Strategy stage for Tynedale District Council while updating Alnwick District Council's LDF site with their Core Strategy Submission Document. As part of this update we created an online Representation Form. Users were able to link directly from relevant sections in the Submission Document directly to the Form which automatically recorded the policy that was being commented upon.
We are also working in conjunction JDi Solutions for Suffolk County Council on the Minerals and Waste Development Framework of their LDF. In October last year JDi's e-consultation software helped South Cambridgeshire DC to become the first Local Authority in the country to have their LDF Core Strategy passed by the inspectors
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Other news
The Lead Partnership and JDi Solutions gave a joint presentation to the North Wales Planning Officers Group demonstrating their respective systems for publishing interactive LDF maps and documents and for e-consultation
The Lead Partnership, in conjunction with Global Mapping, has won Foundation Accreditation with The Planning Portal for its Content Management System for LDF. We are actively working with Global Mapping and our clients for full accreditation. Watch this space in the coming months for more news on our progress.
2006
October
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Planning Portal Accreditation....soon!
Soon we will be accredited by the Planning Portal for having met their LDF XML/GML schema. Our Content Management System (CMS) can directly export map, text and link content of your LDF Web Site (and Local Plan Web Site) in XML format, ready for publication on The Planning Portal Web Site.
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New Web Sites
Here are the URL's for two new Web Sites that we've completed for West Oxfordshire District Council and for the Vale of Glamorgan Council. Both sites have been built using our CMS and are hosted on our new server.
August
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Working with Global Mapping we have now completed the Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council Local Plan Web Site using our new Content Management System (CMS). Nuneaton & Bedworth are very pleased with their site, offering the following words of praise:
"I'm very impressed with interactive Website version of the Local Plan. It has met or surpassed all my expectations. Colleagues I have demonstrated it to are eager to use it as their everyday working document in preference to the paper version. The speed, ease of use and the facility to target specific locations and applicable policies are the most successful qualities of the site. Our working relationship has been first class and professional, with all my queries being attended satisfactorily."
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The CMS will soon be made available under license for Local Authorities to maintain and update the Document, Map Layer and Linking content of their Local Plan or LDF. In addition the CMS also conforms to PARSOL's XML/GML schema meaning that the CMS can make your LDF data ready for publication on the Planning Portal. The CMS can handle Documents already prepared in products such as Microsoft Word and can also accept Documents already published as HTML on current Web Sites.
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The CMS was recently demonstrated at The Planning Convention 2006 and attracted much interest from Local, Regional and Central Government as well as companies and organisations who work within the Planning sector.
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We have recently started Local Plan/LDF projects for West Oxfordshire and Tynedale Councils and have just been awarded the UDP for Vale of Glamorgan. Keep coming back to see these new Web Sites when they are ready via our Portfolio section.
June
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We are currently beta testing our new Content Management System (CMS) which we hope to make available under license soon. The new CMS will be used to build all future Local Plan/LDF Web Sites - as well as other Web Sites with mapping content - and will be available to clients under license to update and amend the text and map content of their own Web Site. The CMS contains an array of tools for text editing and structuring as well as cartographic tools for styling polygon, line and point data. The CMS can directly import data from GIS as either ESRI SHP files or as MapInfo TAB files.
We will be demonstarting the CMS and Web Sites built using the CMS at The Planning Convention 2006 at the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre on 29th and 30th June.
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We have developed a working relationship with ElementA Ltd who provide elemental analysis services. Using their mobile and lab based technology ElementA Ltd provide quick and cost-effective sample surveys for soil and water. Together we are providing a service to Local Authorities who are building their databases for Contaminated Land in response to Part IIA of the Environment Protection Act 1990, offering a range of site-based and desk-top services aimed at incorporating GIS and the Web as the means for identifying, prioritising and communicating Contaminated Land issues.
March
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2006 has started where 2005 left off. Very busy! Congratulations to our Local Authority clients who were successful with their Pendleton Review. We completed 14 interactive Local Plan and Local Development Framework websites for the year end deadline. You can see the sites in our Portfolio section.
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Our work on Interactive Local Plans/LDF continues with ongoing projects for Sheffield, Pendle and Nuneaton and Bedworth Councils.
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The Interactive Mapping Interface we have developed for Rossendale Council's Local Plan has been enhanced to include the facility to search and display the Planning Applications within the District. You can see how it all works here. Dylan is constantly improving the functionality and adaptability of the sites, particularly in the display, so expect to see more changes soon in our next series of websites.
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For a taste of the new map display you can visit www.walkingnorthwales.com where we provided the mapping interface to show the locations of where to walk in North Wales. The map will soon be enhanced with further information as it is gathered by the client. We are also undertaking a new set of walking maps for Padarn Country Park and will also be providing them with a website version as well.
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Elsewhere we have just completed some 400 Tir Gofal maps for the Countryside Council for Wales. New cycle and walk maps have been produced for Warwickshire District Council and the IMAGIN project with Ireland sails on.
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Alan is attending Geo2006, the Middle East Oil and Gas Conference in Bahrain at the end of March and may go onto Dubai for the big GIS show if time permits.
2005
December
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We are currently designing and producing eleven (that's right 11!) Local Plan/LDF websites - Rossendale Council is our most recent addition - for the latest round of the Pendleton Review which has now been put back until the end of this month. In anticipation of the influx of new material, timescales and online requirements we've developed new techniques for building LDF sites that gives our clients better looking, faster and more dynamic websites.
You'll be able to see these new sites very soon in our Portfolio section.
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The IMAGIN project continues with Alan recently returned from a conference in Ireland while our work with The Countryside Council for Wales on the Tir Gofal Access Boards will be restarting this month. Alan is also giving a presentation at the AGI Cymru conference in Cardiff on 8th December.
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We are currently developing ideas for a new online solution for utility companies: more on that soon.
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In the meantime Merry Christmas to you all and a very Happy New Year!
August
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We have completed the update of the Warwick District Local Plan website. Uniquely, the website uses the same graphic files that were generated for the printed version of the Local Plan, but still retains the same interactive functionality as if the images were generated 'on the fly' from GIS data. This is a useful interface for Local Authorities who have adopted their Local Plan and wish to display the same maps as appear in the printed version.
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Through our associate company Global Mapping, we have been awarded contracts to produce Local Plan websites for Welwyn Hatfield District Council and Maldon District Council. These websites will show our latest developments in improving the display quality of the maps.
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As part of our ongoing contribution with IMAGIN (visit the IMAGIN website) we are currently collating and structuring map and other data for a marine survey off the North Wales coast in September.
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We are developing a prototype for an interactive golf website and CD-ROM. The prototype will include an interactive course planner and fly-throughs of each hole.
June
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Through our associate company Global Mapping we have been awarded a contract to produce an Interactive Local Plan Website for Dover District Council. The Website will be produced by The Lead Partnership in MapInfo's MapXtreme.
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As part of our ongoing commitment to supporting Local Authorities in their efforts to provide map-based information via the Internet, we are visiting the offices of the Planning Portal to discuss how best we can assist in the delivery of mapping, text and data for Local Plans and Unitary Development Plans for use on the Portal.
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We are currently updating and revising Warwick District Council's Interactive Local Plan (view current version). The new version will herald an advance in our technical and graphic capabilities as the site will be a hybrid of raster and vector data. The mapping interface will utilise the same cartographics that appear in the printed version but behind the maps will be 'invisible' layers of vector data thus retaining all the interactive/database search functions of our vector solutions. And all this from data supplied in CorelDraw!
May
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Following a ten-week placement, Dylan Parry has now joined The Lead Partnership full-time to help develop our Internet Solutions service. A graduate in Computer Systems with Psychology from Bangor University, Dylan brings programming and web-building skills to the firm. Dylan has quickly established himself as a vital member of the team having already cut his teeth on the production of websites for Conwy County Council, Alnwick District Council and Wellingborough Borough Council.
These latest Council websites can be viewed via our Portfolio section.
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In its capacity as a member of Geoscience Wales The Lead Partnership is providing GIS, Internet and related consultancy services for the IMAGIN project. IMAGIN is an innovative Interreg-funded project led by the Marine Institute and managed by the Coastal & Marine Resources Centre at the University of Cork. In addition to Geoscience Wales the other main partner is the Geological Survey of Ireland.
The project's main objective is to create a strategic framework, within which development and exploitation of marine aggregate resources from the Irish Sea may be managed sustainably with minimum risk of impact on marine and coastal environments, ecosystems and other marine users.
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The Lead Partnership has just completed a password protected website for streetcar®. Initially we were approached to produce a series of printed maps of London displaying census data and streetcar® data to help them monitor car hire activity. We proposed a web-based solution that would negate the restrictiveness and the expense of hard copy printing and would give them greater flexibility in analyzing data across the capital whilst still retaining print functions.
January
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Happy New Year!
The New Year starts with more clients bearing gifts: i.e. new projects. For The Countryside Council for Wales we're producing a series of location maps.
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We're also embarking on a new Web project for Conwy Council that should be online in the Spring, so check back for updates. Bexley District Council's Local Plan Website is virtually complete. Alnwick Borough Council will be having a new interactive web-site for their Local Plan. We are also in the throes of updates for West Lancashire's Local Plan on CD as well as the Internet.
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Our Options service is becoming better known in the area. On the first day back in the office we provided 4 Siteplans alone! In addition to the sale of Ordnance Survey data we find that our background in GIS and cartographic services is also attracting further interest amongst Options clients. We also have access now to aerial photography of the country via Bluesky.
2004
September
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We've been busy working with our technical partners in developing a new online mapping system as well as fulfilling our ongoing project commitments.
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We're pleased to announce that we have successfully completed our R&D grant. We've designed and built a Local Plan website using the new technology. We're very excited about its potential as is, Chorley Borough Council, who is the first client to benefit from it.
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We'd like to thank them for their contribution and their active involvement in its construction. You can have a look at our efforts here.
March
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The Lead Partnership has been awarded a project to produce a series of town cycling maps for Warwickshire County Council using Ordnance Survey data.
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The Lead Partnership is currently working with Global Mapping on Local Plans for Wycombe District Council and Salisbury Council.
January
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The Lead Partnership has been awarded a contract by Brecon Beacons National Park to produce the maps and written statement for their next Local Plan.
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The Lead Partnership is currently working with Global Mapping on a Local Plan for West Lancashire Council.
2003
November
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The Lead Partnership has become a satellite agent for the Ordnance Survey's Options service. Through the service you can buy a large-scale map of anywhere in the UK from the most up to date range of OS digital map products. The service is ideal for members of the public making planning applications.
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The Lead Partnership and Artychoke have completed work on Phase 1 of the 'Ride the Clywds' website (www.ridetheclwyds.com). In addition to traditional 2D mapping the site also includes 3D mapping and 3D flythroughs of cycle routes along the Clwydian Mountain Range. The 3D mapping process has been developed by The Lead Partnership and Artychoke and was first used by the National Trust earlier this year.
October
The Lead Parternership has been awarded a grant by the Welsh Development Agency to develop its ideas for vector based Internet mapping. The Partnerhip will be working with its Internet partners to achieve its grant objectives in Spring 2004.