EUROCRATS have drawn up a controversial plan that would hit Hampshire's famous map-maker hard in the pocket, it emerged today.

A proposed EU directive could ban revenue raising from maps and other work at Ordnance Survey, which employs 1,200 people at its headquarters in Maybush, Southampton.

The national mapping agency, which underpins £100 billion worth sof economic activity in the UK, charges customers, including public bodies, for the use of location data, much of it using digital technology.

However, the EU says the information, used by groups like businesses, the emergency services, motorists, ramblers, homeowners and policy makers, should be available free.

The so-called INSPIRE directive also puts the EU on a collision course with the British government, which stands to make a healthy sum of money from Ordnance Survey.

Ordnance Survey, which is a civil service, is expected to return a money-spinning dividend later this year to the Treasury. Two days ago a top team from the agency travelled to Strasbourg to persuade Euro MPs to water down INSPIRE, which could become operational by 2007.

The agency's strategy director, Duncan Shiell, and executive director, Nick Land of Eurogeographics, which represents map-makers across Europe, attended a reception thrown by Hampshire MEP Chris Huhne.

Mr Shiell told the meeting of MEPs that the current proposal had advantages in ensuring that Europe's map-makers could swap data without problems but it could also be interpreted as banning the receipt of cash for mapping work.

Mr Huhne said: "We need to remove any ambiguity in the wording, as it would be a disaster for Ordnance Survey if it was not able to charge public authorities and others for its work."