Who we are

This privacy notice explains how the Greater Cambridge Planning Service uses information in the course of providing pre application advice on behalf of Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire District Councils.

How we receive information

We receive information directly from an applicant or via an agent on an applicant’s behalf.

We also receive correspondence via email, post, and through our online forms.

What we do with this information

To allow us to process and formulate a response to requests for pre application advice, applicants must provide us with some personal data (for example, name, address and contact details). In a small range of circumstances individuals may provide us with “special category” data in support of their request for advice (for example, evidence of medical history).

We use Article 6(1)(b) of the GDPR as our lawful basis for collecting and holding your data. We cannot process your application unless you provide this personal information. If you do not or if you refuse to allow us to share the information, we will not be able to carry out the service for you.

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

• Right to Access – you have the right to access (receive a copy) of your personal data and supplementary information
• Right to Rectification – you have the right to have any inaccurate or incomplete personal data rectified
• Right to Erasure – you have the right to request the erasure of your personal data so long as it's processing is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was obtained or unlawfully obtained (non-exhaustive) or the information is required for a legal obligation or if it is needed to defend a legal claim
• Right to Data Portability - you have the right to request your personal data which you have provided to us to be supplied in a ‘structured, commonly used and machine-readable format (for example, CSV). You may request that this information is supplied directly to another data controller on your behalf
• 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

Pre application submissions do not form part of our public planning register and are not published online.  If the Pre-Application is followed up with a full application, the Officer response will be added to the online planning file.  

We may process the information you provide to prevent and detect fraud in any of our systems and may supply information to government agencies, credit reference agencies, audit or other external bodies for such purposes. We participate in the Cabinet Office’s National Fraud Initiative.

We sometimes send out a follow-up “how did we do?” survey to people using our service to see how we can improve it.

How we share this information

We do not sell your information to other organisations. We do not move your information beyond the UK. We do not use your information for automated decision making.

We sometimes need to share the information we have with other departments within our Councils (for example, to establish how long a building has been used as a dwelling) or with external consultees if a specialist opinion is required.

Retention (‘how long we keep this information for’)

We will hold your pre-application request and our response permanently on our database.

Personal details, such as name and contact details will be deleted after six years in line with our retention policy.

Complaints and problems

You can find out more about how we handle data by reading our privacy notice and South Cambridgeshire District Council's privacy notice.

If you think we have got something wrong or if you are concerned with the way we are handling your data please contact us by emailing Planning@greatercambridgeplanning.org.

If you have a query regarding your rights, please contact the Data Protection Officer by email infogov@3csharedservices.org.

If we fail to respond properly you can direct your concerns to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).