Data is inaccessible

Data needed is seldom found online, with many datasets held locally and in widely varying formats.

Local plans are often locked inside PDF documents, for example, which means the values can’t be extracted automatically. This is particularly difficult for geospatial data, where conservation and other areas are presented as images.

Even where there are regional or national repositories of data, these typically do not link to the actual data, but often rather to an authority or other data publisher’s homepage or to a dead link. Poor search functions further frustrate the user.