Wednesday 3 July 2013

OS Locator chasing

I finally got around to sorting out some new OS Locator anomalies close to home. I went to look at a new small road under the shadow of the Humber bridge. When I got there the road was dug up for pipe laying. The tarmac has been down less than 3 months and already the utilities are digging it up again. As I was standing looking down the road, wondering if I should brave the excavators, a woman in a hard hat and fluorescent jacket approached me smiling. She asked if I was interested in the new houses, which are not finished. When I explained I was making a map the smile faded but she agreed I could walk to the end of the road with my GPS 'at my own risk'. Since everything I do tends to be at my own risk I collected my trace. On the way out I asked the once more smiling woman what the road name is going to be and she confirmed the same name that OS Locator has.

Next I went to Welton. Here a slightly bigger development has been squeezed into what was a farmyard many years ago. Here too the road was uneven, but only because the final surface has not been laid. None of the houses looked finished, indeed some were barely started. Here too I was approached by a florescent jacket, this time draped around a young man with a clipboard. He too wanted to sell me a house, but when he heard that I was making a map he asked me to leave as it was still a building site and not safe for the public. As I already had my trace I left, this time snapping a picture of the new road's name board - about the only part of the development that was complete.

I am used to roads showing up in OS Locator as they are close to complete, so seeing ones so obviously early in their development is a little different. Maybe OS are trying to get ahead of the game.

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