This privacy notice was superseded on 14 October 2022.
This version was valid from 13 July 2022 to 14 October 2022.
Please see our full Privacy Notice
Who we are
This privacy notice explains how West Lindsey District Council (WLDC) uses information in the course of our work as a local planning authority. This work includes
- Making decisions and providing advice on planning applications and the requirement for Building Regulations
- Making planning policies
- Planning appeal documents
- Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and s106 Agreements and databases
- Working with neighbourhoods on their plans
- Neighbourhood planning, including regulation 16 submission consultations and publicising responses
- Sharing the neighbourhood plans consultee database with parish and town councils for undertaking their regulation 14 neighbourhood plan consultations only
- Working with neighbouring authorities on strategic policies
- Responding to allegations of unlawful development
- Monitoring development, and databases that contain site information and site owners
- Entering legal agreements, serving notices and promoting the best use of land
If you have questions about data or privacy contact our data protection officer via our Customer Services team.
How we get your information
We get information in different ways – for planning applications it is most commonly supplied to us directly (or via a planning agent on their behalf) or we receive it from a third party website that provides a transaction service, such as The Planning Portal.
We also receive comments, representations, allegations and questions via email, letter, and through our website. This information may also be used and provided to the Secretary of State in any subsequent planning appeal.
Finally, information may be submitted to the council for other planning purposes, such as site registers that will contain the details of a site owner or their agent, or from individuals or agents that wish to register their interest in available sites or land (such as the Self and Custom Build Register).
What we do with your information
To allow us to make decisions on their applications individuals must provide us with some personal data (eg name, address, contact details). In a small number of circumstances individuals will provide us with “special category data” in support of their application (eg evidence of medical history).
The council use the information provided to us to make 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.
Some information provided to us we are obliged under the regulations to make available on planning registers. This is a permanent record of our planning decisions that form part of the planning history of a site, along with other facts that form part of the “land search”.
How WLDC share your information
WLDC will not sell your information to other organisations or move your information beyond the UK. WLDC do not use your information for automated decision making.
WLDC will make details of planning applications available online so that people can contribute their comments. We will sometimes 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.
WLDC undertakes customer satisfaction surveys to understand how well it is delivering its services and may use your details to contact you in relation to this work.
Redaction (‘blanking things out’)
WLDC routinely redact the following details before making forms and documents available online:
- Personal contact details - 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 note that comments on planning applications cannot be treated as confidential therefore names and addresses will be published on our website.
Sometimes WLDC might decide it is necessary, justified and lawful to disclose data that appears in the list above. In these circumstances WLDC would let you know of our intention before anything is published.
If you are submitting supporting information which you would like to be treated confidentially or wish to be specifically withheld from the public register, please let us know in advance of submitting the application or make this clear in your comments (ideally at the start, in bold). The best way to contact us about this issue is planning.customercare@west-lindsey.gov.uk
Retention (‘how long we keep your information for’)
WLDC process many different types of information according to our retention policy. A brief summary of long we keep things before they are destroyed:
- Statutory registers (eg planning decisions, approved plans, legal agreements) – for ever
- Supporting documents, reports – 6 years
- Representations, letters, general correspondence – 4 years
Complaints and problems
Making decisions on planning matters is a public task and you do not have the right to withdraw consent. However if you think WLDC have got something wrong or there is a reason you would prefer for something to not be disclosed please contact us.
If you need to make a complaint specifically about the way we have processed your data you should in the first instance use our corporate complaints policy available on the WLDC website. If we fail to respond properly you can direct your concerns to the Information Commissioners Office.
Please see our full Privacy Notice
This privacy notice was superseded on 14 October 2022.
This version was valid from 13 July 2022 to 14 October 2022.