Posted by Richard Rundle on 11/28/06 17:22

"Dylan Parry" <usenet@dylanparry.com> wrote in message
news:4t30q1F121ndtU2@mid.individual.net...
> Harlan Messinger wrote:
>
> > It doesn't need to be "collected".
>
> Of course it does! Who do you think geocodes new properties? Do you
> think they just randomly assign xy coordinates to each new postal code?
> Someone has to go out (usually in the pissing rain) and survey the
> coordinates for each property.
>

Normally they don't. The basics of the address come from the local
authority, both as Local Planning Authority, and as the Street Naming &
Numbering Authority. This data is supplied (at the moment) free of charge to
RM and the OS. The Council also plot the dwellings and pass the map overlays
to the OS. The RM then adds the postcode, and adds the property to PAF. The
OS then uses that info to build ADDRESS-POINT, which is then SOLD back to
the local authority as part of the Mapping Services Agreement, and we are
charged for each time a query is performed on any database that may, some
time in the past, been matched against ADDRESS-POINT, on an internet
transaction.

--
Richard Rundle

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