Privacy Notices - Planning Policy Privacy Notice

You need to be aware of this Privacy Notice if you are submitting information or representations on a planning policy related matter, document or register.

A Privacy Notice is a statement issued by an organisation, such as the Council, which explains how personal and confidential data about individuals is collected, used and shared.

This Privacy Notice is only relevant to the Planning Policy services at Swindon Borough Council. Separate privacy notices are available for other planning related services and activities and can be found here: Planning | Swindon Borough Council.

Swindon Borough Council will act as a “Data Controller” for any personal data that you provide to us. We will ensure that the data given to us is processed in line with the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018).

All processing will take place in accordance with the Council’s Corporate Security Policy. The inputting of personal information will take place by Council Officers, however as the host the data processor has access to this software for regular maintenance and update purposes.  

Each relevant Processor will operate in accordance with its own Data Protection policy where applicable.

Personal data comprises of information that can identify an individual. This data can be directly from the information in question; or who can be indirectly identified from that information in combination with other information.

The types of personal information we collect may include:

• basic personal information including name, address and contact details
• information relating to expressed opinions or intentions in respect of a planning related issue
• any other information you provide to us during the consultation process

Swindon Borough Council complies with its obligations under the GDPR by keeping personal data up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data.

Within plan making there are a number of ways in which the Council will collect personal data, these are outlined below.

Plan-making and related

The Council needs to meet the provisions of various planning acts, regulations and guidance including:

• The Localism Act (2011)
• The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act (2004)
• The National Planning Policy Framework (2021 and any subsequent updates) and associated regulations

In the preparation of local plans there is a requirement to engage with various consultation bodies and members of the public.

The local planning authority is required under planning regulations to publish a detailed statement on representations received after each consultation stage. Individuals names and organisation names may be published within these reports for reasons of transparency. These reports are required to be submitted to the Secretary of State as part of the plan Examination process.

Land information databases

The information supplied by you or on your behalf in relation to housing or employment sites forms part of our land information database for the purpose of producing the Strategic Housing and Employment Land Availability Assessment.

Should you decide not to provide any of the information we request from you we cannot include the site you have put forward in the database.

Similarly, information supplied by you or on your behalf in relation to the brownfield land forms part of the Brownfield Land Register.

Self-Build and Custom Housing Register

This information is supplied by you or on your behalf to register your interest in self-build and custom house building within the Swindon Borough.  The personal data requested is required under the Self Build and Custom Housing Building Act (2015) for the purpose of creating a register of interest.   

Should you decide not to provide any of the information we request from you, your interest in self-build and custom housebuilding will not be placed on the register.

Responses to public consultations will be made publically available to view on the Council’s website, including the name and address of the consultee. Other personal information such as email addresses, telephone numbers and signatures will be redacted by the Council before publication. In order to enable us to redact this, your personal information should be clearly distinguished and separated from the comments, preferably by use of a cover sheet. Personal information included within the body of the text is harder to redact and therefore more costly to the Council. Responses containing libellous, discriminatory or otherwise offensive comments will not be made publically available (see also what not to include in making a comment below).

Subject to the above, comments received:  

• Will be made available for public inspection, and cannot be treated as confidential
• Will be available to view on the Council’s website
• Will be used by the Council to inform the preparation and production of the Development Plan Document or Supplementary Planning Document
• May be forwarded to the Planning Inspectorate or independent Examiner, as appropriate to the Document and the stage it has reached. for consideration as part of any examination
• May be summarised and presented in summary form

Anyone registering with us through the Planning Consultation Portal ‘Objective’ will be asked whether they wish to receive notifications of future consultations on planning policy and related documents. You can withdraw from this list at any time by contacting us at: forwardplanning@swindon.gov.uk

What not to include in the main body of comments?

When making a comment, please do not include:

• signatures
• contact number
• any information you do not want published online
• comments of a personal, slanderous, defamatory or otherwise offensive or abusive nature

Offensive, racist, discriminatory, threatening and other statements that are not appropriate will not be published.

• Offensive statements lower a person's reputation personally within their trade, profession or business
• Racist statements are those that are offensive or discriminate against individuals on racial grounds, including their race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origins. Gypsies and other minorities are racial groups.
• Statements that discriminate on grounds of religion, sexuality or disability will also not be published

Comments that include such statements will be returned to you and you will be invited to resubmit removing any defamatory statements.

We are bound by the Equality Act 2010. This applies to those providing services and public functions. It prohibits direct and indirect discrimination and harassment all of which these types of remarks might amount to.

We use a range of organisations to either store personal information or help deliver our services to you. Where we have these arrangements there is always an agreement in place to make sure that the organisation complies with data protection law.

We will do what we can to make sure we hold records about you (on paper and electronically) in a secure way, and we will only make them available to those who have a right to see them.

Examples of our security include:

• Encryption, meaning that information is hidden so that it cannot be read without special key. This is done with a secret code called a 'cypher'. The hidden information is said to then be 'encrypted'.

• Pseudonymisation, meaning that we will use a different name so we can hide parts of your personal information from view.
• Controlling access to systems and networks allows us to stop people who are not allowed to view your personal information from getting access to it.
• Training for our staff – data protection eLearning is refreshed annually across the Council.

Regular testing of our technology and ways of working including keeping up to date on the latest security updates (commonly called patches).

The contacts on the land database will be retained as long as is necessary to carry out the functions for which is was originally collected and updated as part of a formal review or when land use submissions are made. Representations linked to plan-making will be retained for no more than 7 years. We will not keep this information for longer than is necessary.

We will endeavour to keep your information accurate and up-to-date and will undertake reviews periodically in relation to the land database and representations, particularly during and following consultations when we receive notifications of non-deliveries and requests for amendments, removals or updates.

Data held:

• name
• business or organisation*
• address*
• telephone number*
• email
• agent / representative*

* Not available on all contacts

Retention period:

• Land databases - on-going
• Registers – on-going
• Plan-making - 7 years after adoption of documents

Comments will be stored in electronic format within the Council’s consultation portal and servers (hard copy letters, where received, will be stored at the Council’s offices or secure storage facility).

The law gives you a number of rights to control what personal information is used by us and how it is used by us.

These rights include, but are not limited to;

• the right to be informed about the collection and the use of their personal data
• the right to access personal data and supplementary information
• the right to erasure (to be forgotten) in certain circumstances
• the right to restrict processing
• the right to object to processing in certain circumstances
• the right to withdraw consent at any time (where relevant)

To view the full list of data subject rights and how you can use them visit the Information Commissioners Website

If you have any queries about how to access your information contact DataProtection@Swindon.gov.uk .

You have the right to access your data and correct any inaccuracies. For further details of your rights please contact our Data Protection Officer via email at DataProtection@swindon.gov.uk. 

If you do not provide the required personal data to Swindon Borough Council to deliver its statutory functions as a the Local Planning Authority for Planning Policy purposes, then the Council may not take into account the representations received at Regulation 18 or Regulation 19 stages.

Personal data will be retained in accordance with the Council’s wider data retention policy.

You are viewing the Privacy Notice for Planning Policy.

Read the main Privacy Notice