In our second nostalgic blog, we take a further look at what Astuners were up to in 2005, the year Astun began.
A race against the e-government clock
Moira Livesey, Local Government Champion
2005 was a big year for public sector technology. Three years earlier, the National Strategy for Local e-Government, developed by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM), had been published. Its objective was to ensure that all of the public services in England should be capable of being delivered electronically by 31 December 2005. This was ideal timing for the fledgling Astun Technology whose iShare Maps would help Bolton and many other councils achieve its requirements.
By this time, Moira had already got more than her money’s worth out of her BA in Public Sector Administration. Twenty years into a 30-year stint at Bolton Council, she was busy using Aligned Assets’s iManage Gazetteer to maintain addresses to BS7666. It was through Aligned Assets that Moira first met our MD, Mike. He was a joint owner of Aligned Assets before founding Astun.
In addition to being LLPG Manager, Moira was heavily involved in the Local Land Charges Service. She remembers regularly being called to Bolton’s busy reception desk to show visitors the Local Land Charges Register. Moira remembers, “The records were originally kept in a card index system as well as being recorded on paper Ordnance Survey maps. All the data for answering Local searches had to be captured from paper, microfiche and paper Ordnance Survey maps. All data was taken from source records held by various departments such as Planning, Highways, and so on.”
Moira also produced Local Search and Enquiries reports for solicitors and conveyancers using MVM Local Land Charges software. The reports were created by departmental answering on the MVM system after checking records manually.
As part of Bolton’s e-Government plans, Moira was appointed Lamp Project Manager (Local Authority Modernisation Programme) and tasked with automating Local Search reports and getting all data captured on a central server using GIS MapInfo. This cutting-edge automation project cost over a million pounds and took three years. Once completed, the GIS provided the answers to Local Search & Enquiries in minutes.
Readers of our first nostalgic blog may recall David lamenting the loss of the council tea lady around this time. Moira also mourns the end of the staff canteen, tea trollies and formal tea breaks. Perhaps they’re long overdue for a return?
Outside work, Moira used to love watching the X Factor on a Saturday night, but she was never inspired to have a go. It may have helped inspire some of her memorable karaoke nights though.
Moira’s strangest moment of 2025: Bumping into David Gleave from MVM, suppliers of Bolton’s Local Land Charges software, on International Drive whilst on a trip to Disneyland, Orlando, with her husband and daughter. It’s a small world.
What Moira misses from those days: Attending the three-day AGI conference. She thought it was great for networking and learning, plus the party night was always a blast.
Marketing cutting-edge software from one of Brunel’s warehouses
Jill Davis, Marketing Consultant
In 2005, Jill was marketing software, but not of the GIS variety. Based in the market town of Ashburton, Devon, she remembers working on campaigns for VMware and MindManager in particular. She also helped to set up a software asset management division. In this role, she first came across her nemesis: email newsletters. Having failed to master basic code, it’s only in more recent years that she’s been able to attempt a newsletter without first hyperventilating or ingesting copious quantities of caffeine. She’s very grateful that HubSpot, our CRM, has an intuitive interface – no coding required!
It’s safe to say that GIS wouldn’t be on Jill’s radar for another ten years, when she worked with Matt for the first time at a Midlands-based GIS consultancy. Although Google Earth and Google Maps were launched in 2005, she didn’t use them regularly until a few years later. It’s safe to say that she had no idea she’d later lose entire evenings nosing at properties with Rightmove on one monitor and Streetview on the other.
She remembers that GPS had gone mainstream. Unfortunately, she couldn’t use it as her car had been imported and the satnav remained firmly in Japanese.
Unlike today, when Jill has an eco-friendly ten-step walk to her desk, her commute was 45-minutes long. The route was beautiful, skirting around the edge of Dartmoor, but the drive got tougher towards the end of the year when an extra passenger started hitching a lift. Who knew that hard suspension, Devon roads and baby bumps would be such an uncomfortable mix? These days, the car is long gone – replaced by a Mini with an English-speaking sat nav – and the ‘baby’ towers over Jill by a foot.
What Jill misses from those days: Being able to afford to commute, despite getting a miserly 20 mpg.
Which 2005 invention would she ‘take back’? The Emoto-Tronic Furby whose batteries seemed to last forever. Should you ever walk down the river path in Worcester, you may hear the sad chirps of a Furby languishing in the back of the ‘baby’s’ wardrobe.
From production to professional services
Ali Linden, Professional Services Manager
Ali’s incredible organisational skills were being put to good use as divisional Production Director for Informa, a company she describes as “probably the largest FTSE 100 publisher and events organiser you’ve never heard of”.
As part of their new Healthcare Division, Ali was responsible for a team of 40 based in the UK, Scandinavia and the USA, and a publishing portfolio ranging from magazines, books and twice-weekly newsletters to R&D databases, business intelligence reports and regulatory material – in hard copy and electronic formats.
Tech wise, she and her colleagues made use of Adobe InDesign and Acrobat Pro along with a whole host of custom software that had grown organically over time and which consequently needed an overhaul. The Healthcare Division sold to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical devices, instrumentation, crop protection and animal health industries … with not even a whisper of GIS.
One of Ali’s favourite memories of 2005 was a long road trip from Denver through Nebraska and into South Dakota. After a stop at the memorial at Wounded Knee, she crossed into Wyoming to enjoy the amazing scenery at Yellowstone National Park and to witness the veritable ‘Old Faithful’ doing its thing. Amongst many lasting memories is the long, long way back to Denver for flights home. Ali can clearly recall mile after mile of straight, traffic-free, road stretching away to the horizon, fringed either side by South Dakota’s surreal-looking bad lands. All in all, a memorable trip.
What Ali doesn’t miss about 2005: Commuting. An office move to Old Street, London, resulted in a challenging journey of 2.5 hours each way on a good day.
We hope you’ve enjoyed our second ‘look back’ at 2005, the year Astun began. Next time, we’ll take a look at how GIS has changed over the years. If you have any memories you’d like to share of Astun in the early days, please contact us.