[Talk-GB] Finding Unmapped public rights of way

Robert Whittaker (OSM lists) robert.whittaker+osm at gmail.com
Wed Jul 31 21:42:20 UTC 2013


On 31 July 2013 17:36, David Groom <reviews at pacific-rim.net> wrote:
> A far better approach (which some contributors are following[1]) would be to
> ask to see the definitive statement (not the definitive map) and then ask
> the local authority to release the definitive statement under the unmodified
> OGL.

That's what I've been doing. To help with matching up the paths in OSM
with those in the Definitive Statements, I've been adding prow_ref=*
tags to the ways, and then ticking them off on a list I've made. The
prow_ref values I've entered have been of the form "<Parish>
[FP|BR|RB|BY] <num>" (e.g. "Bredon FP 2") unless there is an
alternative format that is consistently used by the Council.

I've found the usefulness of the Definitive Statements is quite
variable. Modern descriptions are generally very good, with lots of
detail and grid references included. Older ones might contain very
little useful detail, and often reference historic names for places /
roads that are no longer in use. In working out where paths are, I've
found it very helpful to consult the Out-of-Copyright OS maps (eg via
the background layers in Potlatch). These don't specifically mark
PRoWs, but they do include a lot of historic paths and tracks -- many
of which are now PRoW -- and various old place and road names.

To help with mapping PRoW, I've collected together a few resources
that others might be interested in at
http://robert.mathmos.net/osm/prow/ -- including some advice for
requesting Definitive Statements from Councils, various visualisation
tools, and copies of the Definitive Statements I've managed to get
hold of.

Robert.

> [1] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/UK_local_councils#List_of_UK_Councils

-- 
Robert Whittaker



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