New scheme to locate rural properties

Hashpoint is the intelligent system that helps to locate rural properties without house numbers. Assigning a single letter – called a Hashpoint – to each registered property, once combined with the postcode, it can be used to accurately pinpoint any property on the system using a mobile device or satnav. The brainchild of a local GPs and her partner from the Forest of Dean.

Tom Andrews, one of the founders at Hashpoint, said, “All rural GPs and other’s who need to locate rural properties will know how difficult it can be. Apart from wasted time, this can sometimes have serious implications so we decided that something had to be done. We have worked for the last 2 years to develop what we believe to be simplest, most memorable way of pinpointing unnumbered houses. We also wanted it to be something that could help everybody– not just GPs.”

Hashpoint comes with pre-assigned accounts for all 17,000 properties in the Forest of Dean which are on the electoral roll. They are currently sending out over 7,000 letters containing information and validation codes to all unnumbered residences in the area, the plan is to expand throughout Gloucestershire over the summer.

The validation codes are used by residents to access and control their listing, as well providing confidence to emergency and other key services that the location data has been accurately provided by the homeowner. The information is public and can be used by everyone who needs to get access to a house.

Set to be used by emergency services, delivery drivers, taxi firms, tradespeople, and any other professional worker looking for a specific house, the user-managed project aims to redefine the idea of a traditional postcode.

Currently accessible from the mobile website and transferred to satnavs, from June 2017, this life-saving data can be accessed offline via a new mobile app.

To find out more about Hashpoint, visit the website: hashpoint.org