Owen Boswarva's blog

Update 17 March 2026

The download containing Council Tax address data disclosed by Rhondda Cynon Taf in January 2026 and originally linked in the post below has been removed as of today, following receipt of further correspondence from the Council.

The Council has provided a new statement that re-use of the disclosed information, in accordance with the terms of the Open Government Licence, is not permitted.

At the time of writing the Council has not provided any explanation for this statement, and it is currently unclear whether this apparent change in the Council's position has any effect on the licensing of the disclosed information.

The Open Government Licence is a perpetual licence. That normally means that once permission has been granted the licensee may continue to re-use the information covered by the licence indefinitely, provided they comply with the terms of the licence. Assuming the Council's permission was granted lawfully in the first place, it is unlikely that the Council can withdraw that permission unilaterally with retroactive effect.

You can download my correspondence with the Council to date: CT_address_list_Rhondda_Cynon_Taf_FOI-25-26854_[NO_DATA_correspondence_only].zip (0.92 MB).

I am seeking clarification from the Council in further correspondence and some or all of the data may be republished at a later date.

The remainder of this post is as originally published in January 2026, with the exception of the download links and removal of a screenshot.

This is the latest in an occasional series of blog posts about the campaign for open address data in the UK. Previous posts are listed at the bottom.

In this post, I make available a new open address dataset released by Rhondda Cynon Taf.

Background

As described in previous posts, I have recently been requesting Council Tax address datasets from a number of local authorities in England, and asking for permission to re-use the data under the terms of the Open Government Licence. Even more recently, I have been submitting similar requests to local authorities in Wales and Scotland.

I have created a landing page on my Datadaptive site with download links and other information about the Council Tax address datasets released as open data so far:

www.datadaptive.com/addr/

Release from Rhondda Cynon Taf

The latest council to release its Council Tax address list is Rhondda Cynon Taf in Wales. The Council disclosed all of the requested data under the FOI Act without any difficulties and confirmed permission for re-use under the terms of the Open Government Licence (OGL).

Rhondda Cynon Taf is the first local authority in Wales to release its Council Tax address list as open data.

You can download my correspondence with the Council, including the information as disclosed: CT_address_list_Rhondda_Cynon_Taf_FOI-25-26854.zip (5.58 MB) [link removed].

Thanks to Rhondda Cynon Taf's Freedom of Information Officer for facilitating the disclosure and open licensing of this data.

Geocoded open version of Rhondda Cynon Taf address dataset

I have created a geocoded version of the Rhondda Cynon Taf address dataset, which you can also download: RHONDDA_CYNON_TAF_CTBANDS_ONSUD_202512.zip (11.2 MB) [link removed].

This dataset contains information collated from the underlying Council dataset, other than the postcodes. Geographic coordinates and postcodes have been appended from the latest edition of the ONS UPRN Directory (December 2025)

I have prepared the data in CSV and GeoJSON formats, suitable for re-use under the terms of the Open Government Licence (OGL). Please see the enclosed ReadMe file for information on attribution and additional technical details.

[screenshot of geocoded Rhondda Cynon Taf address data visualised in Leaflet with background mapping from OpenStreetMap – removed]

Previous posts related to the campaign for open address data in the UK

Royal Borough of Greenwich has released its Council Tax address list as open data (9 January 2025)

Ealing Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (8 January 2025)

Isle of Wight Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (6 January 2025)

Northumberland County Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (6 January 2025)

Newcastle City Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (31 December 2025)

Plymouth City Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (23 December 2025)

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (22 December 2025)

Southwark Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (19 December 2025)

Ipswich Borough Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (16 December 2025)

North Northamptonshire Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (12 December 2025)