Why we require this personal information?

Your views and comments are important and can help us in deciding the outcome of the planning application.

We require personal data to process comments so that we know where the comment or information came from and can weigh the relevance of any comments made. We may use the information provided to contact you about the application you have commented on.

We receive comments, representations, allegations and questions via our online platforms, email and letter.

What we do with this information

The comments provided will form part of our public register of applications and, as such, will be open to public inspection at our offices and on our website and your comment will be attributed to your address. We need to know your address so we can understand how the proposed development affects your property. For this reason, we do not accept anonymous comments. However, personal information including your name and contact details will be redacted.

Your information could be used to contact you regarding the application. This may be for the following reasons:

• if the application is withdrawn
• if the application is revised
• when a decision is made
• if the application is being heard at a committee
• if an appeal is lodged
• if an application on the same site within four years is submitted

In the event of an appeal, representations will be forwarded to the Planning Inspectorate and the appellant. The Planning Inspectorate may publish appeal documentation, including copies of representations received. They may also be shared with the Local Government Ombudsman in the event of a judicial review.

This information will be used by Cambridge City and South Cambridge District Councils in determining an application for planning permission. This function is known as a ‘public task’ and is why we do not need you to ‘opt in’ to allow this information to be used.

We process this information as a (Public task) Statutory Duty as laid out in the Town and Country Planning Act and we cannot process your comments unless you provide this personal information. If you do not or if you refuse to allow us to share information, we will not be able to carry out the service for you.

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.

As we process this information as a statutory duty you hold the following rights with regard to the personal data provided to us when making comments:

• 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 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

How we share this information

We do not sell information to other organisations. We do not move information beyond the UK. We do not use 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 if you object to a proposal on noise grounds and we feel Environmental Health should be aware.

Redaction (‘blanking things out’)

We operate a policy where we routinely redact the following details before making forms and documents available online:

• personal contact details – e.g. name, telephone numbers, email addresses
• signatures
• Special Category Data - e.g. supporting statements that include information about health conditions or ethnic origin

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

We store your comments on our document management system and are required to hold the information you provide for a period of six years from the date of the decision.

This allows for an appeal expiry date. After this time we will ensure your information is deleted securely. You can find out more by looking at the relevant section in our retention policy document.

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).