EMERGENCY services control is “not reliant” on third party precision location mapping applications to direct personnel to incidents, the government has said after one such platform withdrew from the Channel Islands.
A Government of Jersey spokesperson made the comments after PostTag, which cross-references multiple data bases to provide accurate latitude and longitude information, informed users it was “working to be able to bring precision location back to the islands”.
Speaking to the JEP, the application’s founder, Keith Lewin, cited a “licensing issue” with the government that “doesn’t look like it would be easily resolved”.
“We’ve had to withdraw from the Channel Islands,” he said, describing the situation as “very unfortunate”.
In a statement, the Infrastructure Department said that: “PostTag has been allowing commercial access free of charge to the Government of Jersey’s address data via the UK Ordnance Survey outside the terms of their license agreement.
“They have now agreed to cease these unauthorised activities.”
The statement continued: “Discussions have taken place with PostTag to establish a new contract that would allow them to use Government of Jersey data, but the government requires that they remove free access to this data.
“While PostTag will no longer be able to offer free access, the Jersey address data remains available through our licensed business partners under commercial arrangements.”
Asked whether blue light personnel had utilised the app, a Government of Jersey spokesperson said that: “The Emergency Services Control Centre officially uses Jersey Mapping to direct emergency services to incidents, so is not reliant on apps such as Post Tag, which is currently not available.”
The statement added that: “The location app What3words can be used by the ESCC if needed, as an extra tool, to ensure colleagues can be assisted to find locations as swiftly as possible when needed.”
