A SWINDON firm is part of a team behind an idea which has won £29,000 in funding to make an idea to use crowd-sourcing to make infrastructure improvements in local communities, a reality.

Last September, Ordnance Survey and the Land Registry launched the GeoVation Challenge, which asked participants to offer ideas on how to make housing in Britain better.

In total, 43 ideas were submitted, with nine chosen to pitch for funding, including a bid featuring the Swindon-based Geo-Vey.

Dave Barter, of Geo-Vey, and Richard Reynolds, of Nautoguide Ltd, were behind the idea selected and after a successful pitch, have been given the cash to to develop a free, online portal – underpinned by OS and Land Registry data – that uses crowd-sourcing to generate ideas for improvements to local communities.

Businesses and organisations wanting to gauge local opinion on planned or suggested infrastructure developments can also use the tool, for a fee.

Dave said: “The Geovation process has completely reinvigorated our approach to seeding and developing ideas through to business case.

"We began with a loose idea of something that seemed worthy and feasible, but the mantra of 'problem, solution, execution' was soon firmly instilled in our brains by the GeoVation team."

He said the cash would go a long way to making the service a reality for communities, giving them real input into potential developments.

"The funding will allow us to grow a service that will make a real difference in the community,” Dave added.

Meanwhile, a team from Carbon Co-op, the National Energy Foundation, OpenEnergyMonitor and URBED has been awarded £25,000 for their idea, to create an online tool that shows households their energy usage and ways of controlling and reducing future energy demand.

Democratising Development also received funding to develop their scheme, which uses OS and Land Registry data to identify small-scale sites currently disused or unmanaged with the view to bringing these to the housing market.

Viv Alexander, GeoVation community and event manager, said the team behind the Geo-Vey plan had benefitted from help and advice form both the OS and Land Registry after their bid.

“The nine finalists attending GeoVation Camp were supported by a dedicated team of helpers from both Ordnance Survey and Land Registry, along with service designers and others, in what was an exciting and packed weekend," Viv said.

"The atmosphere was tense as teams refined their ideas, practiced their pitches and prepared for the visit of judges.

"The spirit was amazing as helpers and teams put together nine clearly defined ideas, which gave the judging panel a difficult decision to make.

"The three who were successful demonstrated an ability to be innovative, best addressed the challenge’s identified problems and have well defined business models.”

A new GeoVation Challenge is being planned for a summer 2015 launch.