Somerset Council utilises iManage Cloud to deliver high-impact Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) reporting

Overview:
In 2023, Somerset Council faced a significant data-integration challenge. Following the creation of a new unitary authority, the Council merged five separate gazetteers, i.e. those of the four legacy district councils and the former county council, into a single Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) and a single Local Street Gazetteer (LSG).

This consolidation created a critical need: complete visibility of the new, unified LLPG. With legacy datasets each containing unique gaps, classifications, and inconsistencies, the Council’s Street Naming & Numbering (SNN) team needed a way to immediately understand data quality, quantify issues, and plan targeted remediation work.

Leveraging iManage as the data foundation, Somerset Council built a comprehensive LLPG reporting suite, first in iManage Desktop and then iManage Cloud, that transformed how the Council manages, monitors, and maintains its LLPG.

Background: Why the report was needed
The merger highlighted several challenges:

• Incomplete legacy data | Each district had maintained its LLPG to varying levels so classification gaps were widespread but invisible at scale.
• No unified, real-time oversight | Managers lacked a consolidated view of address quality, volume, classification breakdowns and areas needing attention.
• Need for rapid prioritisation | With tens of thousands of records consolidating into a single gazetteer, the team needed to understand which records required work and the legacy districts they came from.

iManage provided the single, authoritative LLPG data source needed to bring clarity and structure to this newly combined dataset.

Solution: A Power BI report driven by iManage
Using iManage as the live LLPG data source, Stephen Donkor, Senior GIS Developer at the Council, developed a detailed Power BI reporting suite that provided a real-time overview of the Council’s entire gazetteer. When the Council migrated from iManage Desktop to iManage Cloud, the report maintained full functionality simply by switching the data connection, demonstrating the stability and consistency of iManage as the underlying platform.

Key features of the report

• Instant visibility of LLPG scale and composition, i.e. showing the total records and their breakdown by classification.
• Highlighting data gaps, such as missing secondary and tertiary classifications.
• Legacy-area intelligence. With the gazetteer unified, the team could instantly isolate records from each former district to understand and address inherited issues.
• Quick access to LLPG metrics, e.g. number of approved or provisional properties, historic records or classification breakdowns.
• Powerful tertiary drill-downs into detailed categories such as dams, dentists or detached houses that could then be exported for operational use or further analysis.
• Integrated mapping, enabling teams to identify precise locations without needing to open the gazetteer itself.
• Postcode-level clarity. Users could identify classification patterns or anomalies by postcode area, enabling targeted quality-improvement work.

Transforming LLPG management and quality
The report enabled the team to see how many UPRNs lacked classifications, which districts contributed to the gaps, and the scale of work required to reach platinum quality. This eliminated guesswork and reduced time spent manually searching for issues.

Managers used the report to understand workload across legacy districts, set priorities based on real data and allocate resources accordingly, making workstreams more efficient.

Because the report surfaced issues continuously, the team could proactively address data concerns rather than reacting later, helping maintain Platinum LLPG status.

Somerset Council continues to develop Power BI reports and is currently creating one for the LSG, helping the team respond to queries on new streets and giving managers easy access to street data.

iManage supporting local government restructure

As local government restructuring accelerates, new unitary councils are increasingly required to consolidate their LLPGs and LSGs quickly and effectively. Somerset Council is a leading example of how iManage Cloud provides the foundation for complex reporting enabling the clarity and consistency needed to merge the datasets, identify inconsistencies and resolve legacy issues confidently.

“It was critical for us to get the LLPG and LSG onto a single platform as early as possible, as these datasets underpin so many of our services. Being able to generate these Power BI reports using iManage data meant we could consolidate and cleanse quickly and effectively,” Stephen Donkor, Senior GIS Developer, Somerset Council. “Since migrating to iManage Cloud, we continue to use these reports to ensure our data quality remains at Platinum status.”

“Somerset Council has demonstrated the art of the possible with iManage – be it desktop or cloud. By leveraging the accuracy and consistency of their iManage data, they’ve been able to produce rich, detailed reporting that gives their teams complete confidence in the LLPG. Their work is a great illustration of how iManage Cloud supports councils in transforming complex datasets into clear, actionable insight.” Claire Russell, Product Specialist iManage Cloud, Idox.

With local government restructure well underway, iManage Cloud provides the essential platform for councils needing to consolidate LLPGs and LSGs efficiently and with confidence.