Privacy notice for Registration to Speak at a Planning Committee and Council Meeting

What do we use the information for?

Democratic services collect, process and hold your personal information in order to provide our services effectively.

• To record you as a speaker at a planning committee or planning sub-committee
• To enable you to ask a question at a council meeting. 

We recognise that your personal information is important to you and we take our responsibilities for ensuring that we collect and manage it proportionately, correctly and safely very seriously.

What information do we hold and use?

We collect and process the following information:

• Personal information (including full name, full residential and/or business address)
• Contact details (such as email address, telephone numbers)
• Whether you are speaking in favour of, or against a planning application
• Confirmation of what questions electors wish to ask.

On what grounds do we use the information?

We process personal data for the following reasons: 

• GDPR Article 6(1)(a) - the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes
• GDPR Article 6(1)(e) -  processing is necessary for the performance or task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.

How do we collect this information?

We may collect information in the following ways:

• Email
• Telephone
• Letter
• Face-to-face, with one of our employees.

Who do we share your information with?

Democratic services may disclose your information to others but only where this is necessary either to comply with our legal obligations or as permitted by Data Protection legislation. Your name and whether you are speaking in favour of, or against, a planning application is shared with the planning officers, members of the relevant planning committee and other registered speakers. The Chairman may also make reference to your name at the meeting, which is live streamed to the council’s Committee Meetings YouTube channel. 

YouTube - ERYC Committee Meetings (external website)

The video will be available for viewing by members of the press and public during and after the meeting via the YouTube channel.  

For council meetings, your name may be included on the order of business (which is published and shared with all Members) and the chairman may also make reference to your name at the meeting, which is live streamed to the council’s Committee Meetings YouTube channel.

YouTube - ERYC Committee Meetings (external website)

The video will be available for viewing by members of the press and public during and after the meeting via the YouTube channel.  

The reasons why we may share your data are as follows:

• To consider regulatory matters where you are an applicant/agent or objector
• To monitor and improve our performance and delivery of services
• Where necessary to protect individuals from the risk of harm or injury
• Where otherwise permitted under the General Data Protection legislation.

We will not pass your personal information to external organisations for marketing or sales purposes or for any commercial use without your prior expressed consent.

How long do we store it and is it secure?

Democratic services has retention schedules in place to ensure that information is only held for as long as it is needed. We will not keep your information for longer than is required to by law. Your information will be disposed of in a controlled and secure manner in accordance with the council's Records Management and Data Quality Policy. The council's IT security and confidentiality policies ensure that your information is protected and accessed only by staff directly involved in your request

For information on how long your information will be held visit the retention page.

What rights do you have?

The rights that you have depend upon the grounds on which we collected your information. All of the rights you could have are outlined on Data protection rights. In most cases, people who have been involved with democratic services will have the following rights:

• The right of access - you are entitled to see the information we hold about you  
  
• The right to rectification - we will amend the information accordingly, if any information the service holds about you is incorrect
• The right to restrict processing - you may wish to limit how we use your data 
• The right to object - in addition to the right to limit the use of your data, you also have a right to object to the use of your data for certain actions
• The right to erasure/right to be forgotten – in certain circumstances, you may be able to ask for some of the information we hold to be deleted. The service has determined that all requests to permanently delete a service user record will be dealt with on an individual basis. 

To exercise any of your above rights, please visit Data protection rights for more information.

Where can I find out more?

If you would like to know more about how the council uses information, your rights or have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, we request that you raise your concern with us in the first instance. Contact details are available on the general privacy information page. Alternatively, you can contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The ICO is the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest and they handle public concerns regarding organisations information rights practices. 

Information Commissioner’s Office (external link) 

When was this privacy notice last updated?

We will continually review and update this privacy notice to reflect changes in our services, feedback from customers, and to comply with any changes in the law. This privacy notice was last updated on 27 April 2021.