Powys Council had been using CAMS to manage their public Rights of Way for some time. They wanted to update their Commons Register into a digital format and approached Exegesis to incorporate the data they hold on the Commons & Village Greens into CAMS.

Under the Commons Registration Act 1965, the Council is obliged to maintain a register of all the areas registered as Common Land or as Town or Village Greens, along with details of ownership, rights holders and rights particulars. Managing these data in CAMS allowed integration of the map features for the commons & greens with their database records, something that had not previously been possible. For the first time it enabled users to view a common and all its associated tenements (land holdings with rights over the common) with one click. In addition, holding all the data within CAMS makes it easily available and searchable to a wider range of users.

Exegesis developed a new CAMS module to manage the Common land and Village Green Register, allowing users to easily find information on a range of criteria, such as "who has rights on this common?" or "which commons does this farm have rights over?", and easily keep on top of the day-to-day management of the data. The new Commons module handles all the data from the Commons Register and enables easy production of the hard-copy register sheets as well as various application forms and reports. In addition, tools in the Commons Module assist users with the process of reapportioning tenements when properties change hands.

Further information from Timothy Derbyshire