DATA Play up for national planning awards

DATA Play has helped Plymouth City Council reach the final of the Royal Town Planning Institute Awards for Excellence.

DATA Play – which works with local talent and tech companies to explore how data and technology can deliver services in new ways – has been shortlisted for the Excellence in Tech Within Planning category, which will be announced in April.

DATA Play offers access to a range of open data and statistics from national and local data sources and information on topics such as population, ethnicity, employment, health, deprivation and crime.

It aims to use skills and resources readily available in planning services, the community, and the digital tech sector to explore ways of using data to create new products and services. So far nine DATA Play days, 17 products in development, various spin off events and an open data platform have been delivered.

The RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence are the most established awards in the UK planning industry. Running for over 40 years, they celebrate exceptional examples of planning and the contribution planners make to society.