Planning Development Management and Enforcement privacy notice

What this Privacy Notice covers

Your privacy is very important to South Holland District Council.

South Holland District Council is the Data Controller responsible for the personal information you may provide in relation to Planning (Development Management and Planning Enforcement). Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted by phone on 01775 761161, via email dpo@sholland.gov.uk or by writing to us at Legal Services, South Holland District Council, Council Offices, Priory Road, Spalding, Lincolnshire, PE11 2XE.

Your data will be processed by South Holland District Council, Council Offices, Priory Road, Spalding, Lincolnshire, PE11 2XE.

Your data may be processed by Public Sector Partnership Services Ltd (PSPS), formerly known as Compass Point Business Services, a company owned by East Lindsey and South Holland District Councils. PSPS's Data Protection Officer can be contacted via email Data.Protection@pspsl.co.uk, by phone on 01507 613303, or in writing to Data Protection Officer, Public Sector Partnership Services Ltd, The Hub, Mareham Road, Horncastle, LN9 6PH.

Why we need your personal data/what do we collect

The types of personal information we collect may include:

Basic personal information including name, address and contact details
Your occupation
Information about your health
Information relating to expressed opinions or intentions in respect of a planning related application or enquiry
Any other information you provide to us during the planning process as an applicant, an objector or supporting an application.

We collect and hold information about those:

Making planning, listed building and tree applications
Contributing to applications and consultations
Making enquiries and requests
Reporting alleged breaches of planning control
Unauthorised work for building control
Dangerous structures.

We may receive and collect special categories of personal information where these form part of an application such as:

Health data
Political opinions
Race/ethnic origin
Religion or beliefs
Financial data.

Your information will be used to administer planning related applications and determine their outcomes, and to fulfil our legal obligations around our Statutory Duty.

We will collect information about you so that we can:

Assess fee exemptions
Advise you about a consultation
Determine an application
Provide updates
Tell you the outcome of an application, enquiry or request
Notify you if an appeal is received
Issue and serve a notice.

The legal basis for processing your data is Article 6.1(c) of the General Data Protection Regulations - in that the Council has a statutory duty to consider applications under the Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act 2004.

The following list of legislation and regulations all affect the data we collect, store and use. Please refer to each of the following links to see more information from the relevant organisation responsible for maintaining them.

How your data is used

In order to comply with our statutory obligations we must make certain details about planning related applications available in the form of a public register. Regulations also permit and actively encourage this information to be made available online. This includes the name and address of the applicant and, where an agent is acting for the applicant, the name and address of that agent.

We will publish a copy of your completed application form and relevant supporting documents and drawings on our website.

We do not publish resident comments and objections on our website as this will include your name and possibly your address, however if a request is made by an applicant or agent we will redact your name and address, email and/or phone numbers as well as signatures, and make a redacted copy available to the person requesting it, in order that the applicant can be made aware of the nature of objections or comments.

If the Council's decision on the application is appealed, the Government's Planning Inspectorate, who considers the appeal, will request copies of all unredacted original application correspondence/comments/objections. The Council has no control over the way in which the Planning Inspectorate use and publish submissions. Unredacted copies as requested by the Planning Inspectorate will also be forwarded to the applicant/agent.

How long the information is kept for

The law requires us to maintain the information on the register of planning applications indefinitely, and as such information relating to applications will be available on our website permanently. Comments and objections on applications do not form part of the statutory register and are removed from the public domain following a decision being made unless an appeal is lodged.

All applications, comments, enquiries and requests are entered onto our 'back office system'. As a result of this, we will always have any details you have supplied to us stored electronically. This system is only available to employees of South Holland District Council with the correct level of training and access to view this data.

The registers containing Planning information, including comments and other 'background papers' do not have an expiry date.

Special categories of data to determine fee exemption will only be held until the exemption is confirmed and then securely disposed of.

Enforcement complaints

If you make an enforcement complaint the Council will not publish or release any of your details or information. If an enforcement matter is subject to prosecution or other action in the Courts, then we would seek your consent to provide your details to the Court.

Your rights

You have the right to access your data and correct any inaccuracies. For further details of your rights please contact the Data Protection Officer or go to our Privacy Policy for a more detailed explanation.

Failure to provide data

Failure to provide an applicant name will mean we are unable to process the application
Anonymous comments (no name and address) may mean they cannot be taken into consideration and we will be unable to keep you informed
Anonymous complaints (no name and address) relating to alleged breaches of planning control will not be investigated
Failure to respond to a Planning Contravention Notice (asking for contact details) is a criminal offence.

Consent guidance

As a Local Authority there should be very few occasions where our lawful reason of processing is by way of consent. This is because the majority of our functions require us to process personal data either because we have a Legal Duty, or we have a Legal Power to do so (in the public interest or in our official authority). There are other lawful reasons, including for the performance of a contract, however, if those lawful reasons for processing to do not apply to the tasks we are undertaking then it will be necessary to obtain the data subjects consent to process their personal data.

The reason we process data must be stipulated within our Departmental Privacy Notice(s). If we process by way of consent, the consent obtained must:

Be in writing
Freely given (offering individuals genuine choice and control)
Specific, clear and concise (a positive opt-in). Vague or blanket consent is not enough
Not by way of pre-ticked boxes or any other method of consent by default
Informed (Keep separate from other terms and conditions)
Unambiguous
Name any third parties who will rely on the consent
Make it easy for people to withdraw consent and tell them how
Be retained as evidence as to who, when, how, and what you told people
Be kept under review, and be refreshed if anything changes
Not be a precondition to access a service.

Consent to process special categories of personal data must be explicit.

There are will be occasion when whilst we do not process by way of consent, we require specific consent to further share the personal data. Again where this is necessary this must be stipulated within our Departmental Privacy Notice/s and must be in writing, freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous (a clear affirmative action).

A standard format letter or form should be used and should be approved by the Data Protection Officer or Information Governance Officer before use.

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