diff --git a/app/models/pydantic/metadata.py b/app/models/pydantic/metadata.py
index e63af4f3..f17d44b6 100644
--- a/app/models/pydantic/metadata.py
+++ b/app/models/pydantic/metadata.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 from typing import Any, List, Optional, Union
 from uuid import UUID
 
+from fastapi import HTTPException
 from pydantic import Field, validator, BaseModel
 from pydantic.utils import GetterDict
 
@@ -176,10 +177,12 @@ class VersionMetadataWithParentResponse(Response):
 
 
 def _date_validator(date_str):
-    if isinstance(date_str, date):
+    if isinstance(date_str, date) or date_str is None:
         return date_str
 
     try:
         return datetime.strptime(date_str, "%Y-%m-%d").date()
     except (ValueError, TypeError):
-        return None
+        raise HTTPException(
+            status_code=422, detail="Date needs to be of the format YYYY-MM-DD"
+        )
diff --git a/batch/scripts/create_vector_tile_cache.sh b/batch/scripts/create_vector_tile_cache.sh
index 5c8d87ca..6a250834 100755
--- a/batch/scripts/create_vector_tile_cache.sh
+++ b/batch/scripts/create_vector_tile_cache.sh
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ ME=$(basename "$0")
 . get_arguments.sh "$@"
 
 
-NDJSON_FILE="data.json"
+NDJSON_FILE="${DATASET}.json"
 
 # Build an array of arguments to pass to tippecanoe
 TIPPE_ARG_ARRAY=(
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ TIPPE_ARG_ARRAY=(
   "--preserve-input-order"
   "-P"
   "-n" "${DATASET}"
+  "-l" "${DATASET}"
 )
 
 case ${TILE_STRATEGY} in