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Proposals Map

The Local Development Framework includes a proposals map illustrating the spatial extent of policies and proposals contained in the Council's adopted plans, i.e. allocations of land for development or areas to which a specific policy applies. The adopted proposals map must be updated when a development plan document is adopted.

At present the adopted proposals map includes 'saved' policies from the Bedford Borough Local Plan 2002 and policies in the adopted development plan documents, namely the Core Strategy and Rural Issues Plan and Bedford Town Centre Area Action Plan. Paper copies of the adopted proposals map are available to buy from the Council's offices or may be viewed in local libraries.

An interactive version of the proposals map can be viewed by clicking here.
In order to use this interactive version of the proposals map to its fullest potential it is strongly recommended that the user reads this guide before proceeding.


Help Guide Contents



Introduction

The maps can be accessed by clicking on the Maps link on the header bar.

The main site consists of a map on the right hand side and on the left the following tabs.


Map Location Searching


search tab eg

Overview Map


overview tab eg

Map Key


layers tab eg

Map Policies


layers tab eg


Navigating around the map

The mapping comprises 8 levels of zoom ranging from a simple borough overview to detailed OS MasterMap data.
The current viewing level is indicated by the zoom level indicator and along with this the current map viewing scale is also displayed.

zoom level indicator eg     map scale indicator eg

Pan/Zoom Control

Use this control to pan around and zoom into more detailed mapping.


pan control eg

In order to pan around the mapping -

  • Click on the desired compass direction (N, S, E, W) to pan the map in this direction.
  • Select the pan pan control eg tool to be able to pan the map by clicking and dragging the map.

In order to zoom in and out of the mapping -

  • Click on the Zoom in or Zoom out icons.
  • Drag the zoom level indicator zoom to this level of detail.
  • Double click on the map to zoom in at the clicked point.
  • Key in a desired map scale and pressing the Update button.

Overview Map

Use this control to quickly navigate to a specific part of the borough. Note the red square indicates the current map view.


overviewmap eg

Click on this image to navigate to this part of the borough, or drag the coverage indicator box to the desired part of the borough.


Location Searching

Use this to navigate the mapping to a specified address, postcode or locality within the borough.


  • To navigate to a specific address, enter the address or part of in the box. (Please enter as much of the address as you know to ensure you can navigate to the desired location) and press go.

    address search eg

  • The search will return with a list of the first 20 matches from which the user can click on the link to zoom to that part of the mapping

    address search results eg

    Or, if an exact match has been found, the mapping will navigate to this location directly.

  • To navigate to a specific postcode, enter the full postcode or part of a postcode in the box. (Please enter as much as the postcode as you know to ensure you can navigate to the desired location) and press go.

    postcode search eg

  • The search will return with a list of the first 20 matches from which the user can click on the link to zoom to that part of the mapping

    postcode search results eg

    Or, if an exact match has been found, the mapping will navigate to this location directly.

  • To navigate to a specific locality in the borough use the quick links. This contains a list of major localities in the borough in which the user can quickly navigate to.

    search results eg


Map Key

The key control provides functionality to control what policies are visible over the base mapping. Each individual layer control doubles as a key to indicate how this policy layer is displayed on the map.


layer control eg

  • To turn all layers on click on the All Layers On link.
  • To turn all layers off click on the All Layers Off link.
  • To turn an individual layer on/off click on the check box next to the layer.
  • To turn a group of layers on/off click on the check box next to the layer group heading.
  • To expand/collaspe a layer group click on the "+" and "-" symbols. Clicking the symbol while holding down the shift key will expand/collaspe all layer groups.
  • To zoom the map to the full extent of all features in a layer click on the text description of the layer.


Querying the policy data

The site is able to query the map and return a list of policies associated with that query, as shown below.

policy links eg

By clicking on each individual policy link, the user is able to view text information from the Written Statement pertaining to this policy. Note, that only the policies that are visible on the map will be used in the queries. So for a comprehensive query ensure all the policy layers are visible.


The map data can be queried by any of the following methods -

Method 1

  • Select the info button on the toolbar info tool eg
  • Click on the map and a list of all policies associated with this point location will be displayed under the Policies tab on the left.
  • Use the Next and Previous links at the bottom to move between the results pages if necessary.
  • Click on the link to view the Written Statement text for this policy.

Method 2

  • Click on the Show policies in the current view link to list all the policies that are visible in the current map view.
  • Click on the required link to view the Written Statement text for this policy.

Once the user moves away from the current view, by either panning or zooming the map, the list of policy results will be cleared ready for the next query.

Annotating the Map

The site has functionality to allow the user to annotate the mapping. These specific user annotations can be saved as a image in JPEG format to the user's computer.

Adding Annotations

  • To draw a polygon shape, click on the Draw Polygon tool Poly draw tool eg
    Mark out the polygon shape over the map by clicking once to add a vertex and double clicking to complete the shape.

    Poly eg

  • To draw a line, click on the Draw Line tool Line draw tool eg
    Mark out the line over the map by clicking once to add a vertex and double clicking to complete the line.

    Line eg

  • To draw a point, click on the Draw Point tool Point draw tool eg
    Mark out the point over the map by clicking once to add the point.

    Point eg

  • To add a label, click on the Add Label tool Label draw tool eg
    Add the label over the map by clicking once. After the label has been added the user can update the text from the defualt displayed by clicking on the text and typing in the desired label text.

    Label eg

Editing and Deleting Annotations

Use the Edit Shape/Label tool Edit Shape/Label tool eg and select the relevant feature on the map.
The selected shape/label will highlight in blue, as in the example shown below -

Selected eg


  • To change the shape click and drag the vertices highlighted.
  • To add a vertex to the shape click and drag the pale vertex between existing vertices.
  • To move the shape click and drag the point indicated in the centre of the shape.
  • To edit the label, click on the text and key in the new text.
  • To move the label, double click on the label and drag to the a new position.
  • To delete the shape click the Delete tool Delete tool eg

Saving Annotations

To save the map annotations in JPEG format, click the Save Annotations Save button eg button.
The user will be prompted to either open the file or save it. Choose Save and choose the location on the local machine to download it to.





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