Our privacy notices

Welcome to Lichfield District Council’s Planning Services privacy notice.

We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. This Privacy Notice explains what types of personal information we collect about you, what we do with that personal information, the legal basis for our processing of your personal information, what rights you have in relation to your personal information and how you can exercise those rights. It also explains how we keep your personal information safe and secure. We take our Data Protection obligations very seriously and this notice gives you information about our approach to Data Protection legislation (UK General Data Protection Regulation, Data Protection Act 2018, Privacy & Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (PECR)) and any subsequent updated legislation.

What data do we process and what is our legal basis for processing?

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about a living individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

The standard planning application forms require you to provide your personal information. If you do not give us your contact details, we will not be able to update you on the progress of your application or provide advice unless you are using a planning agent.  

We currently collect and process the following information: 

• Name 
• Address 
• Email address 
• Telephone number  
• Bank details  
• Agent contact details (if applicable)  
• Full address of the development  

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 as soon as you can, ideally before submitting the application. You can do this by contacting the relevant planning officer.  

If you submit special category data in support of your planning application, we will use it for the purposes of processing your application. The types of special category data we may collect to support your application include:  

• Race or ethnic origin, 
• Religious beliefs,  
• Health or medical.

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

• Where we have your consent (Article 6(1)(a) & Article 9 (2)(a),
• Where we need to comply with a legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c),
• Where we have a public task duty (Article 6(1)(e) & Article 9 (2)(g).

We collect, store, and use the following categories of personal data about you, and we list our legal basis for processing:

• Contact details, such as: your full name, email address, home address, telephone numbers. (Article 6(1)(c).
• Emergency contact details, (Article 6(1)(c). 
• Identity details, for the purposes of statutory identity checks such as: date of birth, gender, nationality, copy of your passport. (Article 6(1)(c).
• Financial information, such as: bank or building society account details, payment information, direct debits, invoices and contracts etc. (Article 6(1)(c).
• Correspondence, such as: telephone conversations, emails, letters and other communications with or about you, including any feedback you give us. (Article 6(1)(c&f).
• Planning information, such as details of your proposed planning. (Article 6(1)(c&e),
• Equal opportunity information, such as; information about race or ethnicity, disability or religious beliefs but only if provided by you. (Article 6(1)(c) & Article 9 (2)(g).
• Technical information, such as: use of and movements through our online portal, passwords, personal identification numbers, IP addresses, usernames and other IT system identifying information. (Article 6(1)(f).
• Business information, such as: company contact details. (Article 6(1)(c). 

Please note the above list is not exhaustive but gives an indication of the data we collect and our legal bases for processing your personal data. In the main our legal obligations are set out in the following legislation:

• Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015.  
• Equality Act 2010.  
• Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014.  

How we collect personal information and why we have it

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for one of the following reasons: 

• Requesting advice before submitting a planning application  
• Making a planning application  
• Requesting additional information in relation to a planning application 
• Commenting on a planning application 

We also receive personal information indirectly from the following sources and in the following circumstances: 

• If you use an agent, they will provide your personal information to use on the planning application  

We use the information that you have given us in order to:  

• Publicise applications in various ways to seek comments and information,  
• Process applications,
• Notify other organisations of proposals to seek their view, 
• Writing reports and making decisions,  
• System testing.  

Updating or changing your personal data

Please do help us keep your personal data up to date by notifying us of any changes to your personal information such as your name or address etc.

Purposes of our processing

We may use your personal information for the following purposes: 

• To process your application,
• Publicise applications to seek comments and information,  
• Respond to queries and complaints,
• Respond to legal disputes,
• To monitor equal opportunities,
• To prevent fraud, 
• To market our services to you,
• Take legal/enforcement action as required.

Please note this list is not exhaustive but gives an indication of the processing undertaken by LWM Traded Services on behalf of Lichfield District Council.

Who we share your data with

We may share your personal data in the following circumstances:

• Within LWM Traded Services,
• Within Lichfield District Council,
• Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman,  
• Planning Inspectorate, 
• Locally elected councillors,  
• Parish councils, 
• Where we are using contracted service partners for services such as IT, web development, hosting and system administration, email communications,
• To any competent law enforcement body, regulatory, government agency, court or other third party where we believe disclosure is necessary (i) as a matter of applicable law or regulation, (ii) to exercise, establish or defend our legal rights, or (iii) to protect your vital interests or those of any other person,
• To any other person with your consent to the disclosure.

As a Data Controller we ensure all our third-party service providers, such as LWM Traded Services, are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions. A list of third parties who we may share your data with can be obtained from our Data Protection Officer.

As a Data Controller we ensure we have the relevant contractual clauses, data processor, data sharing or information sharing agreements in place with our providers to comply with the Data Protection legislation.

Data security

We take the security of your information very seriously. We have in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions, and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

Data retention and rights

Details about the retention of your data and your rights can be found on our main privacy notice on our website.

Your right to complain

We would encourage you to contact us, in the first instance, if you are unhappy with any aspect of the way in which we process your personal data. You can get in touch with our Data Protection Officer using the details provided above.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint, you have the right to refer such matters to the ICO . It is worth noting the ICO expect individuals to exhaust the complaints process internally before referring complaints to them. 

LWM Traded Services’ Company Number is 12184635, Registered Office Address: District Council House, Frog Lane, Lichfield, Staffordshire, WS13 6YY