How Ordnance Survey Mapping Can Benefit Parish Councils
How Ordnance Survey mapping can benefit Parish Councils
The Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA) began on 1 April 2011 and gives public sector organisations in England and Wales access to OrdnanceSurvey products.
Membership of the PSMA gives you access to high quality mapping in a digital format which brings many benefits and supports a wide range of business activities. Access to OrdnanceSurvey mapping data can also help solve problems by visually sharing complex data on a map background.
What is the PSMA?
The mapping agreement which covers the use of geographic information (GI) for public sector organisations in England and Wales is called the Public Sector Mapping Agreement, or PSMA for short.
The PSMA is a partnership between the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and OrdnanceSurvey. It is centrally funded for any public sector body that is eligible to access and use of a selection of high quality digital map products.
The PSMA spans almost all public sector organisations and will run for ten years, it started on April 1st, 2011 and has already attracted over 2,800 organisations to take advantage of being a member. The PSMA licence covers the geographic areas of England and Wales. For more information on the PSMA and the benefits of joining for your organisation, please see below.
Who can join the PSMA?
A wide range of public sector organisations in England and Wales are entitled to join, some of these include:
- Central Government departments
- Local Government authorities
- Parish councils
- Health organisations (NHS Trusts, Health authorities, Strategic health authorities)
- Internal Drainage Boards
- Public safety and emergency responders
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What are the benefits of joining the PSMA?
- Membership brings the benefits of high quality, expertly managed and maintained Geographic Information, provided as a range of datasets to your public sector organisation
- Membership of a common agreement enables the sharing of information between organisations licensed for the same geographic area e.g. local councils, internal drainage boards, local authorities, and emergency responders can all work together on flood response plans
- Access to geographic backgrounds for data supports collaboration and cost saving through visualisation of complex data against a detailed geographic background
- Membership gives you access to both physical and administrative geography of GreatBritain – from a strategic overview down to the details of a single building
- Access to comprehensive addressing datasets, that combine the best elements from local government, OrdnanceSurvey and Royal Mail, providing an underpinning mechanism that removes error in data exchange and communication, supports citizen service improvement and delivers efficiency gains in operational processes
- Members can now (as of 1 April 2014) also benefit from Royal Mail's PAF Public Sector Licence
Don't take our word for it - please also visit our case-study map to see customer success stories or read more about PSMA activities on the public sector blog.
Find out more by reviewing the PSMA eligibility criteria.