Have you ever heard of Bassetlaw or its district council? I didn’t think so – but I can assure you that you will be hearing more in the future.
Bassetlaw – basically a third of Nottinghamshire – with its coalmining heritage and an all-round hidden gem – is now at the forefront of the next IT revolution in local government – and the key to it is data.
Bassetlaw council is proud to have recently launched its open data website. In a nutshell, Bassetlaw council is making publicly available swaths of information that it holds for the benefit of the public and business alike.
Having regained control from the Tories in 2011, Labour-controlled Bassetlaw has been pushing ahead with a positive programme of challenge and change. The Tories drove the council to adopt a bunker mentality where questions were looked upon with suspicion and the public were sidelined. Symbolically the walls are coming down.
First, of all this isn’t the council’s data – it’s the public’s data and the public are entitled to know more about the council and its services – and to be able to drill down on the costs of both.
Second, this is a programme that, as it rolls out, will empower the public, business and the academic community to help inform, challenge, create and innovate.
As the open data agenda moves forward, data from Bassetlaw joined with other public authorities and institutions will mean that information is there to shape local and national public services in the future.
Data is the key ingredient in driving forward that change – this is the raw building material that will shape Labour’s One Nation Britain. Public services which are coming under increasing pressure due to the government’s austerity agenda have a great opportunity to innovate and collaborate at a level never seen before. In the future publicly available data from Bassetlaw could be used to shape programmes across a wide range of areas. And a full rollout could see the mapping of the positive impact of Labours energy price freeze policy with better ways to map and zone areas blighted by fuel poverty, and those communities that have no access to gas whatsoever.
More publicly available data can help inform and shape decisions by business and industry which would directly impact upon growth and jobs at a local and national level.
There will no doubt be challenges along the way. Some institutions and authorities are a long way behind if we are collectively to realise the full potential of what is the greatest innovation in IT since the invention of the internet.
The greater danger is that as a country we don’t rise to the challenge and miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime to shape a One Nation Britain of the future.
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Simon Greaves is leader of Bassetlaw district council. He tweets @Simon__Greaves
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