Overview 

Harlestone Parish Council in Daventry were one of the first Local Councils to record their insured assets in Parish Online using the pre-formatted Asset Register layers.

By spending the short amount of time to turn their spreadsheet records into a Parish Online map, they can now keep better track of their assets and ensure their records are up-to-date.

Solution

We met with Paul to see how he was getting on and invited us out on a tour of the village. Whilst walking around, he took the opportunity to take pictures of his playground equipment assets. This means that in the event of a claim, he’s even got photographic evidence of the asset. By taking the pictures on an internet-connected tablet they could be attached to the assets directly in Parish Online. For those without such fancy gadgetry, photos taken on a phone or camera can be attached to asset records once back on a computer or laptop.

Benefits

“At first it seemed like quite a daunting task but I quickly got into a rhythm with it. We’ve not got a lot of assets so plotting them in Parish Online took less than 2 hours”

One of the fascinating things about it was realising that not all the information was in my head. When I started adding our street lights I quickly realised I didn’t know the exact position of them. That wasn’t a problem, though. I added them in the general area where I thought they were, then corrected them later once I’d had a walk around the village. I even added in things I’d missed in my original asset list.

That’s the great thing about having a map-based register, you can improve it little-by-little to keep on top of it.

Further to that, by entering dates for when the assets were last valued and inspected, Parish Online becomes an essential tool for keeping track of our maintenance schedules. Should I ever need to raise an insurance claim, I’ve got the peace of mind that my asset register is current and accurate"

 Paul Thomas, Clerk to Harlestone Parish Council.

About Harlestone Parish Council

Harlestone is a small village and civil parish in Daventry District, Northamptonshire, England. It is divided into two smaller settlements, Upper and Lower Harlestone. At the time of the 2001 census, the parish's population was 420 people, increasing to 445 at the 2011 Census. Lower Harlestone lies along the A428, with Upper Harlestone to the south-west and Northampton about a mile to the south-east. To the north-west of the village is the country estate of Althorp, Diana, Princess of Wales' family home. The estate still owns much of the land and many properties in the village.

Pictures either taken by the Parish Online team or sent to us by Harlestone Parish Council.