CAMS notes for LFPS report - Surrey Area Ramblers



Appendix 2.

The Country Access Management System (CAMS)

Surrey County Council has an interactive mapping system called CAMS that the public can use to see the footpath network and/or report a footpath problem.

To see the whole system go to then click Surrey Interactive Map. This includes the problem reporting part.

To see the whole system in respect to footpaths:-

Tick “Roads and transport” in right hand column

Tick 4 headings one after the other and leave the ticks on – Footpath, Byway, Restricted Byway, and Bridleway

Zoom in repeatedly (5 times or more) until the footpath numbers are shown against the footpaths etc. These are the “Definitive public paths”.

To get a grid reference click on “Grid reference” in the left hand column then click on the map.

To report a problem click on the live heading “Report a problem” at bottom of left hand column and follow instructions.

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To report a problem:-

To go straight to the “Report a problem” part go to then click“Contact us or Report a Problem”

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Click on “Report a problem”

Click on “Online rights of way reporting form”

Click on “Register” if this is your first time on this page – enter your personal data (you need to do this only the first time)

Click on Login if you have been to this page before and are registered and enter your e-mail address only. The program fills in your details.

Click on “Report Fault” in top taskbar.

Enter grid ref or click on “Map” in top taskbar to find location.

When in Map enter the village name to go straight to it as a quick way of searching for the location you want.

Then follow the clear instructions

Write down the PROW number that you are given and what you have written in the free text box (Note - everything in the CAMS system is linked to the PROW number so you must have this for future reference).

This part of CAMS works well.

Please do not add personal data in the free text box such as names and addresses nor anything you would not want everyone to see.

Trees – try to identify whether the tree is rooted in the path or not. If not please identify which side of the path and exactly where the tree has come from. This will help SCC identify the landowner without having to visit the site. Describe the size and type of tree if possible and what diameter would need to be cut.

Furniture – please describe the nature of the damage to the stiles/gates/signs etc. that may help SCC to identify the materials and work needed to resolve the problem eg stile has one broken step.

Vegetation – describe what type and where it is growing from eg brambles growing from adjoining land to north.

To see all the PROWs problems plotted in the CAMS system for Surrey you must first train as a Volunteer Path Warden and sign a confidentiality agreement in order to get data protection clearance from SCC. You will then be given “Recorder” access which is the status given to their call centre staff. Then when you view the map’s reported problems you can see them highlighted by a yellow triangle and exclamation icon. You also see an additional Tool Bar.

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After you have logged in select “Map” from the banner and supply one of the requested criteria (Postcode, Street Name etc.). Note that if you use grid references there must be no spaces e.g. “SU 858 414” is invalid but SU858414 works.

By default this should show the Base Layer as “Street Mapping” and three overlays “Public Rights of Way”, Furniture and MaintLyr. Rights of Way are colour coded using the normal Footpath= Yellow, Bridleway = Blue and Byway = Red. Furniture is shown by a fairly clear icon and problems are shown by an exclamation mark.

You will then be able to see every PROW issue in your LFPS area (and all others). In addition to what you can see on the standard map. You can report work done and time spent.

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Clicking the “+” icon in the top right shows the layers selected. Overlays can be turned on and off to speed up the map display and the base may be changed to show an Aerial view rather than a Street/Explorer map view.

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More information can be obtained by clicking either a path or one of the icons. For instance if the exclamation icon is clicked a summary of the path(s) and problem is presented. Clicking a path will show its path number.

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For some of the problem reports there are several sentences of explanation – including alleging who is at fault. For obvious reasons Surrey do not want that information to get into the public domain.

Prior to submitting a new report, it is easy to see if the problem has already been identified.

You can check on the status of an existing problem either by using the PROW###### reference or by locating the problem on the map.

Beyond this stage the CAMS system does not work so well – see notes by David Hutton and David Ross below.

Notes by David Hutton Jan 2017

The system for checking and removing identified problems on CAMS is “work in progress”. New staff at SCC are learning the system and when they have done so further progress is expected.

1. There are quite clearly two separate systems involved with CAMS, The “in -house” system that the SCC staff use and the “website” system that the public and the LFPS use. There seems to be no automatic link and this is, I think, the major cause of the problems that I have experienced with CAMS. SCC staff are aware of it but do not know how to solve it. I understand that SCC will be expanding the categories of faults so that that they can be dealt with them more easily. The problems that the system causes are explained more fully later.

2. Submitting a problem through CAMS is the only realistic way of getting a problem logged into the “in-house system”. No Phone calls or emails will be accepted without a PROW number to reference.

3. Looking at what functions the LFPS needs in CAMS, these are

a) Reporting a Fault

b) Providing SCC with additional or updated information about a fault and /or added photos to a fault

c) Tracking the status of your own reported faults (ones the LFPS has submitted himself/herself)

d) Finding out what other faults have been reported on his/her area and their current status

e) Assessing which faults individual VPW and/or Workparties can help repair.

4. Reporting a fault. (Expansion of item 3a)

Using the report form on the website works well, these are now getting picked up by SCC staff on a regular weekly basis and logged into the “inhouse-system”.

Some tips:- a) Make sure you have zoomed in fully on the map before you OK the position of the fault

b) Keep a note of the PROW number otherwise you will not be able to track the fault. Do not rely on getting an email response from CAMS, sometimes you do not get one.

c) Make a note for yourself of any text you submit in the free text box as you will not be able to view it again after you have submitted the fault.

5. Extra information on a fault (expansion of item 3b)

Once there is a PROW number you can submit additional information, such as photos , updates, when problems have been cleared etc, the email must reference a PROW. These should be emailed to rightsofway@.uk – see Appendix 4.

(I have been sending my stuff directly to John Baker for West Surrey). When an email is received with a PROW number reference it is automatically added to the in house CAMS system file for that fault.

6. Tracking your faults. (expansion of item 3c)

Tracking a fault you have a PROW number for on the CAMS website is by the Track Fault tab, this only gives a shorthand description of the fault and its status and date of report. The present problem is that most items are in progress even if the in-house system has them recorded as resolved. New staff (January 2017) are still learning how the updating of the CAMS website works. So in reality it is not very helpful at present.

7 Tracking other faults. (expansion of item 3d)

In theory you look for the yellow triangle icon on the map and find out its status. The problem is that the CAMS website is not updating. New PROWs are not being put on it and old stuff is not being taken off. How the icons that are on the CAMS website got there no one really seems to know. After the October 2016 meeting the icons I found then are still the only icons there despite the fact that I have submitted many PROWS and I know those faults have been registered on the CAMS in house system. As in item 6 the idea is good but it will not work unless the website is updated.

8. Using VPW and Workparties to solve simple path problems ( expansion of items 3e)

If the CAMS website was up to date with reliable information then it may help in organising people to do the work such as vegetation clearance and missing waymark discs and perhaps nailing down the odd stile footboard. At present it is not much help. In addition since the only information you can get about the fault is via the Track fault tab on the website the information on that tab has to be descriptive enough to enable the LFPS to decide if the work is suitable without visiting the site. In my opinion the data given on the track fault or icon data needs to be improved as the current data is inadequate.

Overall I think the CAMS website was originally conceived to enable members of the public to report faults and get a reference number for the fault. I think it does this very well. I suspect that the feedback to the website of progress on solving a fault was an add-on and as with most system add-ons it is not working properly.

9. What is the best way forward for LFPS with the CAMS system as it is

a) Encourage all the membership to report faults only by CAMS and let the LFPS have the PROW number, Then the LFPS can find out the location and type of fault from the Track Fault tab on the website.

b) Try and clear up the icons that are showing on the CAMS websites. Perhaps your VPW would be happy to visit sites correct anything he/she can and let the LFPS know the status of any faults with photos if possible. The LFPS could then email SCC with the PROW numbers and advise whether the problem is solved, not seen or still needs doing. John Baker has told me that this type of information is helpful, the in house system gets up dated even if the website does not.

c) Visit any faults that you know about which are not showing on CAMS and update SCC on the status if you have a CAMS number. If there is no PROW number submit it as a new fault and get a PROW number.

Hope this helps, we are stuck with the system we have got for a little time yet I fear.

David Hutton

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From David Ross Jan 2017

What is difficult

I have not found a way just to see problems added since a particular date. For my 7 parishes (about 90 miles of paths) there are 53 recorded issues on the system.

The displayed map occupies a limited part of the PC screen. On my system (1920 & 1280 resolution) about 20% of the screen real estate is used to display the map. To get an overview of the problems the maximum area that I can display is 8km by 6km.

Information is not being kept up to date.

Once I had access to the system I went through and checked a lot of historically reported problems and notified SCC of about 10 that in my opinion should be closed. A fair number of these problems are still shown as current. Where issues were dealt with during a Group maintenance day (e.g. new fingerpost erected) they are not being removed from the outstanding CAMS issues.

Individual Volunteer tasks.

I have not found many problems out of the 53 in my patch that are suitable for handing out to volunteers. This is certainly partly due to many of the problems being ones that I have reported which were the ones that I as a volunteer couldn’t fix.

AJB June 2017

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