Battle royal launched over maps

A BATTLE between Queen and country has been launched as a mapping company in which the monarch is a major shareholder started High Court action against the partly State-owned Ordnance Survey.

Getmapping, which spent more than £6m photographing Britain from the air, accuses OS of breach of contract and contravention of the Competition Act.

The scrap will be another headache for Transport Secretary Stephen Byers, ultimately responsible for the OS. The dispute stems from OS's plan to launch its own project to photograph the country. OS wants to use its own images on its online MasterMap, contravening earlier agreements to use those of Getmapping, the company alleges.

Getmapping claims OS has told customers its new product would undercut its rival's. For that to be true, it says, the commercial project must be cross-subsidised from its public service cartography business - thus being partially bankrolled by the taxpayer.