Agenda item

Presentation on ‘web mapping’ and the GIS system.

The Chairman introduced Richard Steele, the Corporate GIS Manager, from the Department of the Built Environment who gave the Committee a brief presentation on the inclusion of Licensing information on the City of London’s Geographical Information System (GIS) web based mapping.

The Chairman reported that all licence conditions were now on the public register which should prove useful to residents, Police and Corporation staff. She stated that a map of all the City’s licenced premises, including venue locations and licence details, was now available on the intranet and would shortly be accessible to the public.

Mr Steele explained that the CoL GIS system is an internal mapping system used to publish information both internally (intranet) and externally (internet) and that all of the information contained within it was maintained and ‘owned’ by individual departments. In order to ensure that the information in the GIS is consistent with that in the M3 Licensing system the GIS ‘grabs’ licensing information from the M3 system each night.

Members were informed that officers were currently working on updating the GIS system to a mobile friendly version. Licensing information is currently available on the intranet in two “test” formats and Members are now asked to decide what format should be used on the public facing website.

Mr Steele went on to present the Committee with two options for how the Licensing information could be presented to the public using maps. The first (“Option A”) displays licenced venues in all categories – those serving alcohol, late night refreshments and/or external tables and chairs. By clicking on the map a user can see a list of the nearby licensed premises and includes a whole host of information about individual premises – their licensing number, trade name, address, summary, latest licence activity and links to the public register and the information contained on it.

The second option (“Option B”) allows access to the same information but separates out different categories of licence into alcohol, late night refreshments and tables and chairs.

The Committee were informed that the internal system also allowed users to view licences colour coded depending on the latest licenced activity[SR1] .

The Chairman clarified that both the City of London Police and Environmental Health were able to access the internal system and that the information was only accessible to the Fire Brigade via the public site.

Members commented that they found the symbols used to determine different types of licensable activity both clear and useful.

In response to questions, Mr Steele confirmed that the GIS system enabled users to zoom in to specific areas and that Ward boundaries were also clearly depicted on the maps.

The Committee questioned why all of the information available internally was not also accessible on the public site. Members were firmly of the view that the more detail that was viewable on the public site the better.

Members were in support of progressing Option A (displaying licenced venues in all categories – those serving alcohol, late night refreshments and/or external tables and chairs with an accompanying key) and making this accessible on the public website.

The Committee also asked that the colour coded “time of latest licensed activity” be included with Option A on the public facing map (as well as internally) but that it be simplified with the period beyond midnight given the main focus as this was often the most contentious period. The Chairman undertook to liaise with officers to revise these into four separate, colour coded categories.

The Chairman, on behalf of the Committee, thanked Mr Steele and his team, together with Peter Davenport and his Licensing Team for all of their hard work in progressing this matter.