Cheltenham Open Data Editorial Standards

How Cheltenham Open Data chooses, checks and publishes local data, how it stays independent, and how to report a mistake.

Our Editorial Standards

Cheltenham Open Data publishes public data about Cheltenham and Gloucestershire so that residents can see what is happening in their town. This page explains how we choose and check that data, how we stay independent, and what we do when we get something wrong.

Where Our Data Comes From

  • We use the original publisher wherever we can: government departments, the Office for National Statistics, the NHS, the police, the Environment Agency, the borough and county councils, and regulators such as Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission. We avoid second-hand copies of official data.
  • Every data page names its source and its licence, and says when it was last updated or how often it is checked.
  • Where a source has no open licence, or its terms are unclear, we say so rather than assume.
  • Where we write facts ourselves, such as the dates on a timeline, we only publish a fact that we can confirm from two independent sources.
  • Where we combine or calculate figures, we explain how on the page, for example how a ward’s flood risk is counted, or why a year’s figures are missing.

How Pages Are Updated

  • Most data is collected automatically by our own scripts, on a schedule that matches how often each source changes: every five minutes for power cuts and road closures, hourly for fuel prices, and monthly or yearly for statistics.
  • Local news headlines are gathered automatically from local publishers and link back to the original story. We don’t rewrite other publishers’ reporting.
  • Page text, explanations and analysis are written and checked by the editor before they are published.
  • When a source stops publishing, changes its format or publishes an error, we say so on the page rather than show figures we can’t stand behind.

Independence and Funding

  • Cheltenham Open Data is independent and self-funded, supported by sponsorship, affiliate commissions and Ko-fi donations.
  • Sponsors are clearly labelled and have no say over our data, our pages or what we write. A sponsor’s own business is listed on data pages exactly like anyone else’s.
  • Some links are affiliate links, which may earn a small commission at no cost to you. They never affect which data we publish or how we present it. See our terms and privacy policy.

Corrections

  • If you think something on the site is wrong, tell us what it is and where you found it.
  • We check every report we receive, and correct a confirmed error as soon as we can.
  • Significant corrections are listed with their date on our corrections page. Routine data updates are not corrections and aren’t listed there.

Complaints

  • If you’re unhappy with something we have published, or how we responded to a report, contact us with the details. We’ll reply, explain what we have done, and correct anything we got wrong.