To get any enquiry underway, we need some bare essentials to get us started. For any enquiry, please provide us with the following. Provision of this information is part of the enquiry process, and should it not be provided, BRERC shall feel under no obligation to proceed with the enquiry.
Central Six Figure Grid Reference – This allows us to locate your site quickly and ensure that there is no confusion as to the location of the area. Without local knowledge of an area it can sometimes take half an hour or so to find the location of a site if a grid reference is not provided!
Map showing the boundaries of the search area – Again this is pretty much essential to us, as we will have to digitise the site boundaries, both to show the site area and to set any buffers. We need to ensure we are dealing with the precise land parcels. The only exception to this is if the site is something simple like a bridge.
Please DO NOT send us a map showing a roughly drawn circular blob around your site, as this only shows us your site location and not it's boundaries - we digitise to boundaries, and require an accurate enough map to make this possible. Also, please try not to send us maps that show rough squares, rectangles, triangles, hexagons or any other shape besides that whichis your search site. It is impossible to digitise these shapes accurately, as they are not drawn accurately to any feature in the first place. If we receive maps with these vague shapes or showing 'circular blobs' then we will work out charges by digitising the standard 1km grid squares which they fall within, and enquirers attention will be drawn to this process.
The radius of the buffer – If you require a buffer zone to be searched around your site, please specify the radius of this. The value we encounter most frequently is 0.5km, but buffers can be set to any value required.
Data Required – Obviously we need to know which data you require. We find that many individuals come to the records centre with vague ideas of the data they require, so it is often helpful to put in a little thought beforehand about the actual data required and the area for which you require it.
Reason for the enquiry – Firstly, we need to be satisfied as to the bona-fide nature of the request before releasing any data. Therefore all intended uses of the data must be specified. Secondly, this will also help us to determine if data will be relevant to you or not. For example, information about a wood on the edge of a 0.5km buffer is unlikely to be of any use to an enquiry where the central site is a bridge that needs strengthening. If the enquiry is part of an EIA though, the woodland data could be extremely valuable. The more we know about the enquiry, the more we can target our search to meet your needs.
Your name, organisation and contact details – Quite apart from allowing us to get in contact with you, this allows us to once again ensure that data is relevant. This also allows us to help determine if the enquiry is for commercial purposes.
Non-Commercial Data Search Start Page