yellow-pages style cms plus postcode searches?

Apologies for long post, but thought it best to give all the details.

I'm looking to build a yellow pages-style business directory.
I don't mind paying for certain components (or all of it), provided it's not silly money.

It needs to be able to list businesses in categories (and allow multiple categories per business).
It doesn't need people to be able to add/modify their own listings - as I will be mostly doing this for them anyway.
I really would like the ability to find the nearest <cobblers> to <postcode>.
I've seen various free ways of doing this online, but none that offers any easy integration into anything else.

I'm not a coder, so the easier it is, the better.
I'm looking at Drupal or Joomla as possible options but as yet don't know either of them.

Visually, I like phpMyDirectory - which isn't free. ($99).
It seems to do everything I need, except for the postcode radius search, which they can't do without licensed .PAF files from Royal Mail. I only need to do postcode search within one city.
Royal Mail's pricing for .PAF files looks confusing to say the least, so I emailed them to try and clarify and got this back:
<quote from email>
We can provide you with PAF® data which is raw data that you need a programmer to install.
It comes in fixed ASCII text.
The data supply charge starts at £1,700.00 + vat for the first year and includes either Monthly or Quarterly updates. Second year cost for the data supply is £1,200.00 + vat
There is also a licence fee to pay which is £85.00 + vat for a single user licence or £3,850.00 + vat for a system licence, and £11,550.00 + vat for a multi system licence.

You can take Postcode selections at £150.00 per Postcode area with a minimum data supply charge of £600.00
There is a licence fee of £2.00 per Postcode area to hold the data on a single pc or £40.00 to hold it on a server or website, this includes quarterly updates.

There is Postzon data, which is also raw data and contains the Postcode, Eastings and Northings, Ward and NHS codes.
The data supply charge starts at £750.00 + vat and a single user licence is £50.00 + vat and a system licence is £1,000.00 + vat
You can also take Postcode selections at £50.00 + vat per Postcode area with a minimum data supply charge of £600.00 + vat, licence fees are a single user 75p per Postcode area, and £15.00 + vat for a system licence per Postcode area.
</quote from email>

Clear as mud.
I read that as the minimum it'll be is £150 per area (but a £600 minimum charge for some reason, so it'll be £600, + £40 "licence fee" (another silly addon) + vat = £736 per year, if my maths is correct, which seems a rip-off for a list of postcodes for 1 city.
Really, it seems ridiculous to pay for something that Google Maps can do for free, if I understood APIs and how to link the two.


So I'm looking elsewhere for postcode searches...
Something like the phpGoogleStoreLocator from http://crystaldawn.net (which has the added bonus of directions from where you are to where the store is)
or
Postcode finder from http://aciddrop.com/2007/12/17/quick-easy-and-free-nearest-store-postcodezip-finder/

Neither of which do phpMyDirectory know how to implement, so will result in me starting all over again and trying to work out how to do it with Drupal/Joomla/something else.

Any advice on either finding .PAF data considerably cheaper, or recommendations for any other system like phpMyDirectory which uses Google/Yahoo maps for radius searching, much appreciated.

 

give a try to www.esyndicat.com
it does postcode radius search within US

 

Ah thanks for that.
I forgot to mention - I'm based in the United Kingdom. It's one city in England it will need to be able to search.

Apparently every country in the world (pretty much) has postcodes/zipcodes as freely available public data, but in the UK it's owned by the Royal Mail who charge a fortune for usage.

That's the reason I'm trying to get it to go through Google Maps, as although not quite as accurate, is completely free.
On the downside, it's more complicated to set up, which is why I'm considering running the system without postcode radius lookups (or with a very crude version of them).