Directors’ Report for the year 2024–2025

OpenStreetMap UK CIC 2025, agm

OSM UK is constituted as a Community Interest Company, registered with Companies House in the UK. The Board of Directors is responsible for the management of the Company and the furtherance of its objectives, as set out in the Articles of Association:
https://osmuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/UKOSM_Articles.pdf

Board and Governance

During the 2024/25 period, Jonathan Harley and CJ Malone resigned as Directors at the previous AGM, with CJ being subsequently re-elected. Steve Karmeinsky joined the Board as a Director, and all other Directors continued in post from the previous year.

The Board has continued to hold monthly virtual meetings throughout the year. These are generally open for members to observe, and occasionally feature invited speakers. Minutes are available online at https://osmuk.org/members/governance/minutes/ and members can email board@osmuk.org if they are interested in attending future meetings.

At the end of March 2025, membership of OSM UK stood at around 97 individual members and 2 small corporate members. Membership fees remained at £5 per year for individuals and £50 per year for small corporate or non-profit organisations.

The OSM UK website (https://osmuk.org/) and membership management system were migrated during the year to hosting kindly provided and donated by Mythic Beasts, significantly reducing the administrative burden on Directors.

Activities to Support the UK Mapping Community

OSM UK’s objectives include improving OpenStreetMap data and supporting the UK mapping community. Several initiatives have continued to advance these aims:

  • The Board has supported the UK Quarterly Projects, helping to select and promote topics throughout the year.
    The topics during this reporting period were:
    • 2024 Q4: Crossings and Traffic Lights
    • 2025 Q1: Fixmes and Notes
    • 2025 Q2: Healthcare
    Full details of the Quarterly Projects can be found at:
    https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/UK_Quarterly_Project
  • The Online Mapping Chat sessions continued with an open agenda, usually centred on the current Quarterly Project. Attendance reduced towards the end of the year, and the sessions are currently paused.
  • Member and former director Robert Nickerson has been in discussion with GRIDSERVE supporting data collaboration opportunities and the inclusion of their charging points into OSM..
  • CJ Malone updated the widely used Land Registry Cadastral Parcels overlay, bringing the dataset up to the end of 2024. Details of this service are available at:
  • https://osmuk.org/cadastral-parcels/

Working with External Organisations

A key objective of OSM UK is to promote the use of OpenStreetMap data by third parties and encourage the release of third-party data suitable for OSM.

  • OSM UK submitted a response to the Land Use Framework consultation, advocating for the inclusion of UPRNs and INSPIRE IDs in as many datasets as possible, and for data to be released under the Open Government Licence (OGL) wherever feasible.
  • Members and Directors have continued to field queries from external organisations and provide informal guidance where needed.

Outreach and Promotion

Outreach and advocacy remain important parts of OSM UK’s mission, helping to grow the editor community and raise awareness of OSM’s benefits.

  • Jez Nicholson gave talks to the British Computer Society in Coventry about OpenStreetMap.
  • OSM UK has been actively involved since late 2024 in the planning and facilitation of State of the Map EU, hosted in Dundee, Scotland.
  • Steve Karmeinsky gave a talk at Geomob, promoting OpenStreetMap and publicising OSM UK’s role in supporting the UK community.

Summary

Overall, 2024–2025 has been a year of continued steady activity, infrastructure improvement, and external engagement. The Board thanks all members and volunteers for their ongoing support and contributions to OpenStreetMap in the UK.