Privacy notice - Spatial Planning and Data Protection

Planning at Wiltshire Council take your privacy very seriously and will keep your personal data secure. Below you will find information on how and why Spatial Planning may collect and process your personal data in our role as a data controller.

If you have any questions about data or privacy please visit Wiltshire Council's data protection webpages. Further contact details including information on how to make an enquiry or complaint can be found under the 'complaints' section of this privacy notice.

We receive personal information from a number of primary sources. Firstly as part of the Council's statutory duties in relation to the collection and processing of comments pertaining to consultations on planning policy, from requests to be kept informed of the progress of any planning policy document and from site submissions as part of the SHELAA process. These requests may come in from a variety of sources and all personal information is held securely on our consultation portal.

The preparation of Local Plan documents, including organising consultations and receiving subsequent representations is all processed in accordance with the Town and County Planning Act 1990. More information about how we engage with the community in the preparation of Wiltshire's planning policy documents can be found by viewing the Statement of Community Involvement.

When submitting representations, requests to be kept informed or other means of correspondence, you provide us with personal data.

We use this data as part of the Council's statutory duties to process representations and documentation to help shape planning related policies and strategies along with making decisions about the use of land in the public interest. This is known as a "public task" and is why we do not need you to "opt in" to allow your information to be used.

We will make representations available online so that people can contribute and view the comments.

Sometimes, in order to process your enquiry or consider your comments/representations, we need to share the information you give us; either with the Planning Inspectorate (Secretary of State), other service departments within Wiltshire Council (for example housing, economic development and planning or legal services) or with other external 'partner' organisations such as Local Town and Parish Councils, Neighbouring Authorities, Natural England, Environment Agency and Historic England.

Follow-up correspondence may also be sent in regards to your representation, updates on the progress of the relevant plan and to inform you of how your representation will be processed.

We routinely redact details before making forms and documents available online, items we redact include:

• personal contact details for the applicant - e.g. telephone numbers & email addresses
• signatures
• special category data - e.g. supporting statements that include information about health conditions or ethnic origin
• information agreed to be confidential.

Please be aware that representations and supporting material submitted to us will be retained in its totality and may be shared as outlined in the with 'How we share your information' section above.

We also have a statutory duty to make available for inspection documents which may contain some personal information.

We process many different types of information including legal agreements, representations, supporting documents and general correspondence. All of this information is kept and destroyed in line with our Document Retention Schedule (Excel doc) [395KB] (opens new window) .

If you have ever provided your personal data by consent (i.e. in cases where it is not required by legislation), you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time (contact details for Spatial Planning). If this is the case, we will remove you from our notifications list and you will no longer be contacted.

We would prefer any complaints to be made to us initially so that we have the opportunity to see if we can put things right.  To report a complaint, request to update your information or review the information we hold about you contact us using the details on our 'contact us' web page.

If you are unhappy with the way we have processed your information or how we have responded to your request to exercise any of your rights in relation to your data, you can raise your concerns as outlined below.

Making decisions, preparing plans and dealing with representations on planning matters is a public task and you do not have the right to withdraw consent to the processing of that information. If you need to make a complaint specifically about the way we have processed your data, If you would like to access any of the information we hold about you or have concerns regarding the way we have processed your information, email InformationGovernance@wiltshire.gov.uk (opens new window) or contact:

Data Protection Officer
Information Governance 
Wiltshire Council
County Hall
Bythesea Road
Trowbridge
BA14 8JN

If you remain unhappy with the way we have processed your information or how we have responded to your request to exercise any of your rights in relation to your data, you can raise your concerns direct with the Information Commissioner's Office.

This notice gives you information about the data we hold about you, how we use it, your rights in relation to it and the safeguards that are in place to protect it. 

Wiltshire Council is registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner's Office. Full details of the registration are available at  ICO register of data controllers (opens new window).

Wiltshire Council can be contacted by phone, in person, or in writing, follow see the Contact page.

If you wish to speak to a member of Spatial Planing, see Contact Spatial Planning.

Our DPO may be contacted as above or online at InformationGovernance@wiltshire.gov.uk (opens new window).

The Spatial Planning department will process your personal information for the following purposes:

• maintaining our own accounts and records
• corporate administration and all activities we are required to carry out as a data controller and public authority
• maintaining consultation database and site submission records to enable us to keep people informed on the progress of planning policy documents
• processing representations received as part of a local plan consultation process

Our processing shall be lawful because at least one of the following will apply:

• processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the Council is subject, e.g. town and country planning act 1990;
• processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the Council, e.g. the preparation of a Local Plan document or supporting evidence;

If your special category data is processed, in addition to one of the above, processing will be necessary because at least one of the following shall also apply:

• the data subject has given explicit consent to the processing of those personal data for one or more specified purposes,
• processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest,
• for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes

Where necessary and lawful, or when required by legal obligation, we may share information with:

• representatives of the person whose personal data we are processing
• examining bodies
• local and central government
• courts and tribunals
• professional advisers
• professional bodies
• data processors
• local and central government
• partner agencies, approved organisations and individuals working with the police.

Wiltshire Council will process your personal data for the above purposes for no longer than necessary. Full details of our retention schedule can be given upon request, and can also be found via 'About Freedom of Information'.

Your rights are set out in the current Data Protection legislation and include:

• the right to access your personal information, to request rectification or erasure of certain personal information and to object to processing in certain circumstances
• the right to withdraw any consent you may have given to process your personal information
• the right to  ICO: Make a complaint (opens new window) if you feel we are processing your personal information unlawfully
• the right to restrict processing activity in certain circumstances
• the right to object to certain types of processing activity.

The information you are giving us is not a statutory or contractual requirement; or a requirement necessary to enter into a contract.
You are not obliged to provide this information although failure to do so may render the Council unable to proceed with your request of services.

Spatial Planning at Wiltshire Council does not use automated decision making in respect to your personal information.