Tested - Philip’s Road Atlas

As sat-navs eat into the sales of traditional maps, top publisher Philip’s has come up with a neat innovation on its 2009 editions. MapEasy sees each atlas bundled with transparent write-on, wipe-off sheets to help drivers plan their route.

Three overlays are supplied, and they ‘stick’ to the pages like Post-it notes. Only water-based markers can be used on the sheets, and these make following a route easy. The ink can be wiped off quickly, too.

But the firm hasn’t ignored the basics. The Britain and Ireland atlas has 320 pages, plus plans of more than 120 areas, ports and airports.

Towns are fully indexed, while fixed speed traps are shown with a limit on the page, and mobile sites listed separately. The three-miles-per-inch scale isn’t huge, but mapping was good.