GeoPlace announces Winners of the 2026 Exemplar Awards

These honours recognise the outstanding work that’s being done by Street Naming and Numbering (SNN) Offices, and Address and Street Custodians right across England and Wales – improving systems, strengthening collaboration, and delivering practical benefits for citizens, services and communities through better uses of location data.

The GeoPlace Awards highlight technical excellence, but they also reflect the wider civic and operational value of high-quality address and street data – supporting more efficient services, better decision-making, and more connected ways of working across local government. They are a testament to the work that goes on behind the scenes, delivering lasting benefit to communities.

The Exemplar Award  

The Winner of the 2026 Exemplar Award is East Cambridgeshire District Council, for its proactive work in promoting SNN and the Local Land and Property Gazetteer across internal departments, partner organisations, developers, parish councils and the wider community.

Through sustained engagement, relationship-building and clear advocacy for the UPRN as the definitive property identifier, the council has greatly improved understanding of the LLPG as the single authoritative source for address data. It’s an extraordinary achievement: reducing the impact of siloed working, improving data quality and consistency, and increasing confidence in the LLPG throughout the authority.

What makes East Cambridgeshire’s work exemplary is the way in which it has elevated the role of high-quality address data. Once seen as a specialist function, it is now regarded as a recognised, valuable corporate asset. By strengthening collaboration and embedding better data practice across services, the council has reduced errors and delays, improved operational efficiency, and helped secure long-term recognition for STNN and LLPG services as the authority prepares for local government reorganisation.

Leeds City Council was Highly Commended in the Exemplar Award category for transforming its Housing Land Monitoring process. By replacing an outdated manual system with an automated spatial solution powered by GIS and LLPG data, Leeds has improved the accuracy and timeliness of housing supply monitoring, identified many previously unreported completions, and reduced officer processing time by around two weeks each quarter.

Data Linking Award  

The Data Linking Award goes to authorities that clearly demonstrate how linking data has improved collaboration, supported better decision-making, or delivered savings while at the same time meeting a clear user need.

The Winner of the 2026 Data Linking Award are Swale Borough Council and Maidstone Borough Council. This recognition shows the value of shared work, transforming LLPG management from a reactive process into a proactive service that supports multiple council operations.

Supported by a small, shared GIS team, the shared service between the two councils have embedded SNN more effectively into their workflows, and strengthened collaboration across many different departments. Using internal datasets such as council tax, and business rates and licensing, they have shown how it is possible to identify and manage property changes in near real time. Daily automated validation checks now support stronger governance and faster issue resolution.

This work delivered particular value during the rollout of a new waste contract. In this project, aligning LLPG records with council tax data helped avoid significant additional contractor costs for the councils concerned. The project demonstrates the power of data linking: improving accuracy, increasing confidence in authoritative local data, reducing duplication, and showing how well-managed address data can deliver clear operational and financial benefits.

Street Naming & Numbering Collaboration & Innovation Award

The winner of the 2026 SNN Award is Surrey Heath Borough Council. This award recognises the way in which Surrey Heath’s team developed a collaborative, SNN-led data model with Revenues and Benefits that could address long-standing issues around new developments being missed for council tax and national non-domestic rates.

By embedding UPRNs at the earliest planning stage, and using a GIS-based solution to securely share live development information, the council has improved coordination between services and enabled earlier identification of new properties for taxation. Revenues teams can now act much sooner on planning approvals, monitor development progress alongside SNN, and bring properties into tax months earlier.

This joined-up approach has improved income accuracy, reduced the risk of missed revenue, and strengthened data governance. It’s also given the council a more reliable, real-time view of development activity. And it provides customers with a clearer and more coordinated communication journey – an excellent outcome, all round.

The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and the London Borough of Sutton were Highly Commended in the SNN Award category for raising awareness of Street Naming and Numbering as a strategic source of structured data. As a shared service, their work has helped reposition SNN as a critical function that supports infrastructure planning, emergency response, digital services and day-to-day operational delivery. 
 

The Peer Award

The 2026 Peer Award has been presented to Sam Eastwood. The Peer Award is distinct because it celebrates the people whose contribution is felt through the quality of their work, and through the encouragement and help they give to others.

The Custodians’ community is the unseen powerhouse enabling much of the most important work that happens in local authorities, across England and Wales. Sam’s award reflects the value placed on trusted colleagues who help strengthen that network through a commitment to professionalism and a deep-seated enthusiasm for the power of place. Her nomination reflects a wider appreciation of the role individuals play in sustaining standards across the Custodian community.

Lifetime Achievement Award

A Lifetime Achievement Award has also been presented to Martin Laker, recognising his long-standing contribution to the Custodian community.

Martin previously won Custodian of the Year in 2013, and this award marks the greater significance of his wider service and commitment to the geo-community over many years. His contribution reflects the sustained expertise, professionalism and community spirit that underpin the effective management of local address and street data.

Data Quality and Improvement Awards

This year, authorities across England and Wales have again been recognised for achieving high standards in address and street data quality. 

• For their work with address data, 191 authorities were recognised as Platinum Award winners, with a further 32 authorities receiving Gold Awards.
• For their work with street data, 90 authorities were recognised as Platinum Award winners, with a further 35 authorities receiving Gold Awards.

These awards reflect the commitment of Custodians and their teams to maintaining and improving the quality, consistency and reliability of the data supporting public services, emergency response, infrastructure planning, revenue collection, digital transformation and day-to-day service delivery.

Nick Chapallaz, Managing Director of GeoPlace said:

“These awards are a reminder that excellent address and street data is never just a technical achievement. It is created and curated by people – people who have a deep-seated enthusiasm for their own role, and a strong connection to the needs of their authorities, their services and their communities. It’s all about helping to turn accurate information about place, into better outcomes for people.

This year’s winners show that progress can take many forms: improving long-standing processes, linking data to reveal new value, supporting more resilient services, and helping colleagues work with greater confidence. It’s work that often happens behind the scenes, but its effects are felt widely – in faster decisions, better services, stronger governance and more effective public delivery.

My congratulations go to all of this year’s winners, highly commended authorities, Gold and Platinum Award recipients, and nominees. Together, these achievements highlight the great strength and expertise of the Custodian community, and the continuing importance of the location data they help create, maintain and champion every day.”

Notes:

GeoPlace’s Exemplar Awards

The Exemplar Awards highlight Custodians’ roles within their authorities and enable their work to be more widely promoted to all parts of the organisation. They spotlight the high standard of local address and street data and show how it underpins efficient, effective services.

From transformation projects to essential system improvements, the awards showcase innovation at every scale – all rooted in the thoughtful, accurate curation of location data. Promoting this work helps highlight not only the importance of these datasets, but also the pivotal role played by Street and Addressing Custodians and Street Naming and Numbering Officers in delivering better outcomes for communities.

GeoPlace’s Awards highlight the work in curating and maintaining that data. Promoting this work helps to highlight the importance of the Custodians’ role, and the potential for this data to deliver ever-more efficient and effective services for communities.

About GeoPlace

GeoPlace LLP is a public sector limited liability partnership between the Local Government Association (LGA) and Ordnance Survey.

GeoPlace is a world class expert in address and street information management, working internationally as well as in the UK to help our partners and customers maximise the value of their spatial information for better decision making.

GeoPlace maintains a national infrastructure that supports the address and street information needs of the public and private sectors. Its work relies heavily on close working relationships with every local authority in England and Wales.  

This relationship has been developed over 16 years, to build the National Address Gazetteer infrastructure and National Street Gazetteer. Ordnance Survey develops the range of AddressBase products from the National Address Gazetteer and OS MasterMap Highways Network from the NSG. Both datasets underpin efficient and effective services, bringing direct service delivery benefits to users.

The Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) and the Unique Street Reference Number (USRN) are the unique identifiers for every addressable location and street in Great Britain. They are created by local authorities who have the statutory authority to name and number every street and property and Ordnance Survey who identify objects on the landscape which may otherwise not attract an address.

These unique reference numbers link datasets together and share information with other organisations who also use them. They provide a comprehensive, complete and consistent identifier throughout a property's life cycle – from planning permission or street naming through to demolition.

See www.geoplace.co.uk.