Why we use personal information about you
To process
- planning applications
- enforcement and monitoring cases
- planning appeals
- planning policy conusltations
- planning policy evidence
Why we are allowed to use your personal information
Legal obligation or public task under various UK laws including but not limited to: Town and Country Planning Act 1990, the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, the Planning Act 2008 and the Town and County Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012.
We use the information we collect about you in order to administer planning related applications and determine their outcomes, and to fulfil our legal obligations around the planning process.
We also use the information we collect about you to inform our preparation of the Local Plan, Supplementary Planning Documents and other planning policy work. This may include evidence gathering exercises such as ‘Call for Sites’. For those people who choose to be registered on our consultation database, we will use your personal details to keep you notified about our latest news, events and consultations.
Where regulations or laws dictate, anonymous representations will not be accepted.
We do not use the information provided in the planning process for any other purposes unless we are required to do so by law.
What sort of information we may hold about you
The personal data that we hold includes information such as;
- your name
- your households names
- your job title
- your organisation
- contact details
- email address
- phone number
- special category personal data such as gender, ethnicity, religion or other beliefs, sexual orientation
- your medical history
- information relating to expressed opinions or intentions in respect of a planning related application or planning policy consultation
- any other information you provide to us during the application process, policy consultations or evidence collection
How long we may keep your personal information
We are required to make certain information about planning related applications available to the public, we cannot guarantee that all the information you provide will remain confidential.
A lot of information about planning related applications must be retained indefinitely (this is required by law.)
For planning policy consultations, we will hold your personal data for the lifetime of the Local Plan or following the adoption of other planning policy documents (in most cases this will usually be a minimum of 6 years). After the retention period expires we will delete your personal data from our systems. If your personal details are kept on our planning consultation database, we will contact you periodically to seek your consent to remain on the database. You can request to be removed from our lists at any time, by emailing planning.policy@southribble.gov.uk or by writing to the Planning Policy Team, South Ribble Borough Council, Civic Centre, West Paddock, Leyland, PR25 1DH.
Who we share your personal data with
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 may publish comments and objections on our website, and this will include your name and possibly your address. If the council's decision on the application is appealed, the Government's Planning Inspectorate, who considers the appeal, will ask for copies of all application correspondence and they may also publish comments online.
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. Neighbour letters will be retained indefinitely as part of the electronic planning application file.
In order to protect your personal data from any unnecessary disclosure, we will remove personal telephone numbers, mobile numbers, email addresses and signatures from the information that may be viewed online, but we will not as standard remove these details where they relate to your professional capacity (e.g. as an agent).
We will also remove any sensitive personal data that is legitimately required in the application process, such as information about your health, prior to publication. We also reserve the right not to publish any documents containing perceived insulting, offensive, abusive or obscene comments. We may share your information with other council services to ensure our records are accurate and up to date.
We may share your data with Chorley Council as part of the shared services arrangements.
In relation to planning policy, we are required to make certain details about planning consultations publicly available. This will be your name and comments. We may also publish the name of any agent acting on your behalf. We will not make any other personal details public.
We may share personal data with the Government’s Planning Inspectorate, and the appointed Programme Officer, for the purpose of a planning examination. We will not share your data with any other third parties.
The Council is preparing a joint Central Lancashire Local Plan (CLLP) with our partner authorities - Preston City Council and Chorley Council. A separate privacy notice for the CLLP can be viewed here.
When computers make any decisions about you
Not Applicable.
When your data gets sent to other countries
Not applicable.
Your rights
You have the right to:
- request a copy of your information ( known as a subject access request)
- request rectification or erasure of your information
- request a restriction on the processing of your information, and, object to processing of your information
- complain to the information Commissioners office about the way the council processes your information
If you require further information about the use of your data or would like to exercise any of the above rights please contact: the Data protection officer at South Ribble Borough Council.