Planning consideration

Council wards

Local areas that have been divided for voting purposes

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• Design stage: Test and iterate
• Tags:
  • local plan
  • boundary

  View a glossary of tags

• Github: Join the discussion
• Synonyms:
  • Wards
  • Electoral wards
• Legislation: No legislation added
• Expected number of records: 8,396
• Frequency of updates: Quarterly
• Useful links:
  • National dataset documentation page
  • ONS dataset documentation page
• Technical specification: No specification added

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Related dataset

• Ward:

  • View schema on Github

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Background information

Each planning consideration we work on passes through the stages of our design process, where we research and answer specific questions to help us collect more information.

Backlog

• Who asked for 'Council wards' data?

  The Geospatial Commission has published a list of 65 open datasets that they believe are used during the housing and planning process. This includes Council Wards

• What is the driver for the request?

  Other

• Which 2024 focus area does the request support?

  • Modern planning software

Screen

• What is the 'Council wards' consideration?

  Boundary-Line is updated twice a year, in spring and autumn.

  The updated product is a full replacement for all the listed administrative and electoral boundaries. The represented boundaries and administrative unit names are defined and modified by Orders, Acts and Statutory Instruments (SIs). Changes that are operative from the first week of May in the current year of release will be included. Changes to Westminster constituencies that are effective from the date of the next general election will be included as separate files.

• Is there legislation that defines 'Council wards'?

  No

• Who, in law, is responsible for the planning consideration or makes decisions about 'Council wards'?

  Unknown

• Which organisations do we think should publish the data?

  • Local authorities
  • Ordnance Survey

• Is the Council wards a trigger?

  No

• Is the Council wards something to consult during plan making?

  No

• Is there any Council wards data already available?

  Yes

  • What Council wards data is currently available?

    • Item 1

      • Delete
      • Edit
      • url: https://beta.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/products/boundary-line
      • name: Boundary-Line
      • licence: OGL version 3
      • coverage: GB
      • publisher: Ordnance Survey
      • attribution: Contains OS data © Crown copyright [and database right] [year]
      • metadata_url: https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/documents/product-support/tech-spec/boundary-line-technical-specification-v4.3.pdf

    • Item 2

      • Delete
      • Edit
      • url: https://geoportal.statistics.gov.uk/datasets/69b2084e13284ea59be314cb28edc41c_0/explore?location=54.660612%2C-1.891581%2C8.00
      • name: Wards (May 2024) Boundaries UK BGC
      • fields: WD24CD;WD24NM;WD24NMW;BNG_E;BNG_N;LONG;LAT;Shape_Area;Shape_Length
      • licence: OGL version 3
      • coverage: UK
      • publisher: ONS
      • attribution: Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0 Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right [year]

• Do we think the data should come from a single source?

• Will a data standard be required?

  No

Research

• Do we understand the lifecycle of a Council wards?

  No

• Do we understand how the data is created/produced?

  N/A

• Where will or should the data be used?

  N/A

• What other planning considerations does it interact with?

  N/A

• Who are the statutory consultees for Council wards?

  N/A

• Other than the statutory consultees who are the primary users of Council wards? How do we expect them to use Council wards?

  N/A

• What are the planning needs for this data?

  Council wards are an important dataset for planning, as often neighbourhood plan areas are split by ward - or sometimes multiple wards. Planning applications are also often mapped against ward, and this allows LPAs to consider homes coming forward / completed against housing targets through the authrority monitoring report.

• Who are the types of users who might benefit from having access to Council wards data?

  N/A

• What are some potential uses of Council wards data?

  N/A

• What's the value of adding Council wards data to the platform?

  N/A

• From what we have learnt so far are there any risks to making Council wards data available?

  N/A

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2 updates

• Claire Miller (26 September 2024)

  As per some research we did, summarised in this blog on an analysis of local plans and local area requirements, we're confident that this consideration acts as an INPUT to the process of creating a local plan.

• Colm Britton (01 July 2024)

  Council wards are available as part of the boundary-line dataset and also published by ONS

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Last updated: 2024-09-26 09:49:35