[Talk-GB] Footpath reference numbers

Robert Whittaker (OSM) robert.whittaker+osm at gmail.com
Tue Nov 9 17:38:49 GMT 2010


On 8 November 2010 14:37, Nick Whitelegg <Nick.Whitelegg at solent.ac.uk> wrote:
> I think some discussion of this has come up before (some time ago) but how many people are tagging footpaths with their council reference numbers?

I asked about this previously at:
http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/tagging/2010-August/003748.html

> I know one or two people have been tagging ref numbers but where have they got the info from? A couple of councils round here (Hants,
> West Sussex) publish the path numbers on their online maps but it's unclear whether copying from them would be infringement of copyright.

The reference numbers will be listed in an official document called
the "Definitive Statement" maintained by each county council. This
provides a description of the route followed by every public right of
way. It typically includes OS grid references, a textural description
and details of where the path starts and ends (eg a road or another
path number). The numbering system is often only unique within a
parish, but sometimes a parish prefix is added to the number, and at
least one county has been re-numbering all the paths to be unique
within the county. Where a right of way crosses a parish boundary, the
two sections will have different numbers (if the old per-parish scheme
is still in use).

OS has officially stated that they don't claim any IP rights over the
Definitive Statement [1], so OS copyright isn't an issue. (I'm not
100% certain that you can use the grid references -- they're
technically derived from OS maps, though the disclaimer [1] should
cover that, and presumably the translation to lat/lon is simply an
algorithm and hence not copyrightable.) However, as the Definitive
Statements are maintained by each County Council, they probably have
IP rights in them, and we would probably need to get permission from
the council before using them.

I've tried obtaining some definitive statements using FOI.
Unfortunately, since the definitive statements have to be available
for the public to inspect, there's an exemption they can apply that
the statements are already "reasonably accessible" to the applicant.
(I wonder if requesting ones from counties far away from where you
live could make a personal visit unreasonable...) Some councils don't
have their definitive statements in electronic form, and would charge
for scanning / photocopying. Moreover, some councils are becoming
aware of re-use licenses and have started imposing their own
conditions on re-use -- some of which may not be compatible with the
OSM license (or any future proposals). As a result of this, I've held
back from FOI-ing any more definitive statements, until (a) the OSM
license change issue is resolved, and (b) the new Open Government
License for Public Sector Information [2] gets adopted by local
authorities.

That said, I'd very much be in favour of adding reference numbers to
footpaths (and other rights of way) since it would help us verify the
designation tagging and completeness of the public rights of way
network in OSM.

Robert.

[1] http://blog.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/2010/04/os-opendata-goes-live/comment-page-1/#comment-536
[2] http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/open-government-licence.htm

-- 
Robert Whittaker



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