[Talk-GB] Tagging showgrounds

[Mark Goodge]

Morning all,

Someone has commented on a change I made to the Three Counties 
showground last year when I changed the tagging to landuse=grass rather 
than landuse=commercial. Their suggestion is that it really ought to be 
landuse=recreation_ground, with a secondary tag of surface=grass.

https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/74103491#map=16/52.0834/-2.3235

I've responded to that comment on the changeset, but I thought it would 
be worth throwing out here as well.

I do think that tagging showgrounds as landuse=commercial is generally 
incorrect; it doesn't match the description of 'commercial' in the wiki 
and doesn't reflect the typical uses of showgrounds both when a show is 
on and when one isn't.

The reason I tagged the Three Counties showground as grass is because, 
most of the year, that's precisely what it is - an open area of 
grassland. Unless there is an event on (which only happens for a 
minority of days in a year) it is just an open space.

Looking at a few other showgrounds across the country, we don't seem to 
have any consistency.

The East of England Showground is tagged as landuse=recreation_ground:

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/52.5456/-0.3170

The Suffolk Showground is tagged as a park:

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/52.0330/1.2277

So is the Staffordshire County Showgound:

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/52.8255/-2.0643

The former Royal Showground at Stoneleigh is tagged as commercial, but 
in that case that's probably now correct as it's no longer used as a 
showground and is gradually being redeveloped as a business park:

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=15/52.3435/-1.5220

The Great Yorkshire Showground isn't tagged as an area at all, just a 
network of roads and individual features:

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/53.9830/-1.5065

Similarly with the Norfolk Showground

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/52.6490/1.1793

And the Bath and West Showground:

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/51.1552/-2.5265

So, what do people think? Personally, I think that showgrounds ought to 
be tagged as an area, because they do, typically, have clear boundaries 
and are distinct from their surrounding context. But I'm less sure what 
the area should be tagged as. I think commercial is usually wrong, for 
the reasons I've already given, but I can see an argument for either 
grass, recreation_ground or even park.

Thoughts, anyone?

Mark