[Talk-GB] Correcting an error when the only correct data sources are non-open

[Andy Robinson]

I've noticed that this happens quite a lot with postcodes too, especially
when residents take up a newly built commercial/retail unit on a new
development. My assumption is that someone, not necessarily the post office,
gives them a postcode and they run with for opening launch and website
update etc. Maybe they eventually get corrected. I suspect some never do.
Anyway, I decided long ago life was too short to worry about it and tagged
the postcode that seemed most appropriate.

Cheers
Andy

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Goodge <mark at good-stuff.co.uk> 
Sent: 24 September 2021 16:26
To: talk-gb at openstreetmap.org
Subject: [Talk-GB] Correcting an error when the only correct data sources
are non-open

I've just updated a couple of retail units in my town that have recently
changed hands and now have new tenants, to replace the old names with the
new ones and update the ancillary tags appropriately. So far, so good. No
problems there.

However, in the course of doing so, I decided to have a quick click round
some of the other nearby units, just in case I could fill in any useful
tags, and found that one of them had the wrong address - specifically, the
wrong number (it should be 16, but was given as 14).

Now, I know what the actual address of that location is, from previous
knowledge of that particular unit when it was in the hands of a friend of
mine, and both the local council's property database and the Royal Mail PAF
agree with me, as does OS Mastermap. So I am certain that my knowledge is
correct. But... I can't find any open data source which says the same thing.
And, annoyingly, the current occupant's own website has the wrong number on
it (which is where I suspect that the previous mapper got their data from).

I've made the change anyway, and tagged the source as local knowledge
(which, in a sense, it is). But my change is vulnerable to being reverted by
someone else who goes by the occupant's website, and I can't use the PAF or
Mastermap as sources in OSM as that's not open data.

What would other people do in this situation? How do you correct an error
when the only correct sources are non-open?

Mark

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