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Cambridge City Council

Representations on planning policy documents: Privacy notice

On 25 May 2018, new data protection regulations came into force which set out clear obligations on organisations that hold and handle personal data. This privacy notice sets out how your personal data will be used and by whom, if you make or have previously made comments (known as representations) through one of our public consultations on one or more planning policy documents, such as the Local Plan or a Neighbourhood Plan.

Who is responsible for holding your personal data?

South Cambridgeshire District Council at South Cambridgeshire Hall, Cambourne Business Park, Cambourne, Cambridge, CB23 6EA and Cambridge City Council at Cambridge City Council, PO Box 700, Cambridge, CB1 0JH are the data controllers responsible for holding your personal data.

The Data Protection Officer is the Information Governance Manager at 3C Shared Services, who can be contacted by post: Information Management Team, 3C ICT, South Cambridgeshire Hall, Cambourne Business Park, Cambourne, Cambridge, CB23 6EA, or by email: infogov@3csharedservices.org.

3C Shared Services is a strategic partnership between Cambridge City Council, Huntingdonshire District Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council.

How will your personal data be held?

Your personal data will be held along with your associated representation(s) in our consultation databases and will be used by the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service (a shared service for South Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridge City Council). We also securely store paper and electronic copies of representations.

How will your personal data be used?

During the preparation of planning policy documents, we are required through national legislation, regulations and guidance to undertake public consultation at one or more stages, and to allow representations to be submitted to the Councils. For many of these consultations, a representation can only be considered to be valid if you (the representor(s)) and your agent (if you choose to use one) provide us with some personal data such as your name, organisation (if applicable), postal address, and email address so that we can contact you in relation to your representation.

Your personal data will therefore be used by the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service to process your representation(s) or contact you in relation to your representation(s) as required through national legislation, regulations and guidance.

Will any of my personal data be shared with others?

Representations, including names, are published on our website. Before we publish any representations on our website we redact (‘blank out’) the following details:

  • personal contact details for you (the respondent(s)) and your agent such as addresses, email addresses, and telephone numbers;
  • signatures; and
  • sensitive personal data identified as special category data as defined in the Data Protection Act 2018.

Full representations, including personal data such as addresses and email addresses are publicly available to view on request at the Councils’ offices and may be subject to Freedom of Information requests.

Your personal data will be used by the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service to process your representation(s) or contact you in relation to your representation(s) as required through national legislation, regulations and guidance. We will share your personal data with the Inspector(s) and Programme Officer(s) appointed to undertake any examinations in accordance with legal requirements. We may also share your personal data with consultants or legal advisers appointed by the Councils to undertake specific projects or to provide advice during the plan making process.

South Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridge City Council share the responsibility for the preparation of Neighbourhood Plans with the relevant Parish Councils or Neighbourhood Forum. We will share your personal data with the relevant Parish Councils or Neighbourhood Forum for that Neighbourhood Plan where necessary as required through national legislation, regulations and guidance. Where necessary, we will also share your personal data with the examiner appointed to undertake the examination of the Neighbourhood Plan in accordance with legal requirements.

How long will my personal data be kept?

We will retain representations made with the associated personal data for fifteen years from the date of adoption of a planning policy document. This is in accordance with legal requirements and the Councils’ Retention Policy.

What are my rights?

You hold the following rights with regard to the personal data you provide us:

You have the right to have a copy of what is held about you, this is called a Subject Access Request. If you would like to make a formal Subject Access Request, please write to the Information Governance Team, 3C ICT, South Cambridgeshire Hall, Cambourne Business Park, Cambourne, Cambridge, CB23 6EA or email: infogov@3csharedservices.org. If any of your personal data that we hold is inaccurate, you have the right to have it corrected.

You can view your own personal data that we hold on the Greater Cambridge Planning Service consultation website at any point by logging into your record(s) on the consultation database. You can also log in to the consultation database to update your details at any time. For this your account(s) on our consultation database will need to include an email address, as this is your unique identifier to allow you to login.

If your account(s) on our consultation databases do not include an email address, you will need to contact the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service to request a copy of your personal data that we hold on the consultation databases or to update your details:

Right to Rectification – You have the right to have any inaccurate or incomplete personal data rectified.

Right to object to us processing your personal data where you have an objection on “grounds relating to your particular situation”.

Right to Restriction – You have the right to request a restriction of the processing of your personal data in situations where it is inaccurate, unlawful, and no longer needed for the purposes for which it was originally collected, or if a withdrawal of consent has been made.

Can I opt-out in future? How do I opt-out?

Processing representations made on planning policy documents is a statutory duty (public task) as laid out in national planning regulations, which means that the processing and retaining of personal data is required to comply with those regulations.

However, if you decide that you do not wish to be contacted by us in relation to your representation(s), you should let us know this by writing to the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service:

Can I make a complaint about how my data is held?

We hope this privacy notice provides you with a clear explanation of what we do with your personal data and why, however if you have any queries or concerns please contact the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service directly in the first instance:

Alternatively you can take your concerns to:

  • The Data Protection Officer by email: infogov@3csharedservices.org or by post: Information Governance Manager, 3C ICT, South Cambridgeshire Hall, Cambourne Business Park, Cambourne, Cambridge, CB23 6EA
  • The Information Commissioner who oversees Data Protection and Freedom of Information. Information on what they do and how to contact them can be found at: www.ico.org.uk
  • The councils via our complaints process or SCDC’s customer feedback.

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