Geographic data specialist, thinkWhere, has been awarded a Scottish Government contract to create an online mapping service aimed at supporting the planning and building application process.

The new service enables planning applicants to create and purchase customised maps to submit with planning and building applications based on detailed Ordnance Survey mapping.

To deliver the new service, the Stirling-based firm announced it has extended the capabilities of its existing online shop, mapTrunk, which offers a service for purchasing large scale Ordnance Survey maps as digital data extracts for use in computer mapping.

In February this year, thinkWhere joined the Open European Location Services project to develop a web system that provides users access to geospatial data from public authorities across Europe.

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“This is an important contract now only for thinkWhere but also for the future of planning and building services in Scotland, said Alan Moore, CEO at thinkWhere. “Working with the Scottish Government, we can place geographic information at the heart of the planning process where it truly belongs.”

Moore added that the introduction of the service will make accurate and up-to-date maps an “integral part” of every development, which could enable fast and more-informed decision making.

The original ePlanning system, which was launched in 2010 was later joined by a building standards system which allowed users to prepare and submit planning and building warrant applications online – a feature that helped save time and money for both applicants and local authorities.

This new system, eDevelopment.scot, combines the two services and provides a single log-in point across all Scottish local and planning authorities. Following the recent launch of the new service, users can navigate their area of interest by using a place name, street name or postcode.

There onward, the user is guided to annotate the base map using a set of Map Builder tools before creating a pdf version of their output which can be uploaded alongside an application.