Development management regulatory service privacy notice

1. Council contact details

West Northamptonshire Council

Registered Office:

One Angel Square
Angel Street
Northampton
NN1 1ED

West Northamptonshire Council is the Local Planning Authority with statutory duty to determine Planning Applications within its area. Development Management is responsible for determining those planning applications and our responsibilities include:

making decisions and providing advice on planning applications
responding to allegations of unlawful development
monitoring development
entering legal agreements, serving notices and promoting the best use of land

2. Information that we hold

2.1. The information processed may include names, addresses, signatures as well as any other information submitted in support of a planning application.

However, we operate a policy where we redact the following details before making documents available online:

personal contact details - eg phone numbers, email addresses, signatures
Special Category Data - eg supporting statements that include information about health conditions or ethnic origin
information agreed to be confidential

On occasions we might decide it is necessary, justified and lawful to disclose data that appears in the list above. If this circumstance arises, we will let you know of our intention in advance of disclosure.

3. How the information is obtained

3.1. Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you, or an agent acting on your behalf.

3.2. There are a number of reasons why we need to collect and use your personal information.

Generally, we collect and use personal information where:

it is necessary to meet our legal obligations (Town and Country Planning Act 1990, Planning (Listed Building and Conservation Area) Act 1990 and Localism Act 2011 (all as amended)
you have requested a service from us
you have made your information publicly available
it is necessary for law enforcement reasons and to prevent, and detect fraud or crime
it is necessary for archiving, research, or statistical purposes - for these purposes your data would be used in a pseudonymised format (name and other identifying information replaced with a unique number)

4. What we do with the information

4.1. We use your information to assist us in making informed decisions on Planning matters.

4.2. We are statutorily required to publish details of planning applications online so that people can make any necessary comments. We will on occasion need to share the information we have with other parts of the council-for example to establish how long a building has been used as a dwelling or with other external 'partner' organisations (for example Local Town and Parish Councils, North Northamptonshire Council, Natural England and the Environment Agency), and the Planning Inspectorate (Secretary of State).

We do not sell your information to other organisations or move your information beyond the UK.

All comments made on planning applications form part of the public record for that application.

5. How long we keep your information for and how we securely dispose of it after use

5.1. Your information will be permanently retained by us as part of the planning register, in accordance with planning legislation.

6. How we store your information

Your information is securely stored on the council’s systems in electronic format. The Council’s servers are based in the UK.

7. Your data protection rights

7.1 The law gives you a number of rights to control what personal information is used by us and how we can use it. Please see section 15 of the council’s Corporate Privacy Notice for further information.

You have a number of statutory rights to the information we hold on you, which includes access; these are explained on our privacy and cookies pages.

7.2 Please be aware that your rights may differ depending on the lawful basis for processing your personal data.

8. Who to contact

8.1. If you would like further information about how we use your personal information, or you wish to exercise one of your data rights or you wish to complain about the use of your personal information please contact the Data Protection Officer.

8.2 If you are still dissatisfied once you have contacted the Data Protection Officer, you have the right to complain to the ICO.

The ICO’s address:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

This privacy notice was completed on 26 March 2021.

The privacy notice review date is March 2022.

Last updated 29 September 2021