Privacy notice for Cheshire East Highways 

Ringway Jacobs is contracted to the Council to deliver the highways service and is known under the branding of Cheshire East Highways.

There is a separate privacy notice for Cheshire East Highways Insurance Team.

What personal information is being processed during day to day activities

Personal data including (this list is not necessarily exhaustive):

• Names and titles
• Address
• Contact details such as telephone or mobile numbers and email addresses

Your information will be used for some or all of the following purposes

• To enable us to meet all legal and statutory functions under the Highways Act 1980
• To understand your needs in order to provide the services you require under Highways and Environment operations and Network Management activities
• To inform you of any updates / outcomes to your enquiry via telephone, email or via our ‘Report It’ if you logged your enquiry via this channel

We are collecting your personal data for the following purposes:

• investigate and rectify any highway defects
• deliver services and support to you
• carry out emergency works
• recover costs due to damage to the highway asset or enforcement duties
• understand how you interact with the highways online fault reporting website
• train and manage the employment of our workers who deliver those services
• keep track of spending on services
• check the quality of services

If you do not provide your personal information we will or may be unable to:

• Clarify with you the exact location or nature of your fault or enquiry, should we have a query regarding this or if there is insufficient information to resolve a fault or enquiry
• Recoup the costs and carry out repairs to the highway assets due to damage to the highway or enforcement action
• Improve our services and levels of customer service.

We rely upon the following laws to process your personal data:

• Flood and Water Management Act 2010
• Highways Act 1980
• New Roads and Street Works Act 1991
• Road Traffic Regulations Act 1981
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990
• Traffic Management Act 2004
• Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981
• We rely on Article 6(1)(e) to process your personal data

Where we get your information from

In most cases any information we hold on you will have been provided directly by yourself. This is usually via an enquiry that you have logged with us or from you in a survey or similar. We also receive your personal data from third parties, for example in letters from MPs, Councillors or Town/Parish Councils where you have asked an official person or organisations to act on your behalf.

Some of our operatives wear body cameras and likewise some of our vehicles have dash-cams which may mean that photos / video footage is taken of you as you pass-by our staff working on the network.

Who we share your personal data with

Your data will be held within Cheshire East Highway’s secure network. Access to your information will be restricted to authorised members of staff who are required to process it for the purposes outlined in this privacy notice. In order to deliver services to you it may be necessary for us to share your personal data with the following organisations/partners:

• Ward members (Councillors)
• MPs
• Internally with colleagues from other Cheshire East departments
• Cheshire Police or Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service
• Other Local Authorities if there is a shared interest in your enquiry
• Our software providers will also store your information, but will only access on our instruction. They won’t use it for any other reasons, and they have to look after it in the same way that we would. 

There may be times where the problem you have reported cannot be resolved by Highways and we may need to forward your enquiry onto a third party. In most cases, we will not provide the third party with your personal information, but will only provide details of your enquiry. However in certain cases the third party may need to contact you directly. A third party could be one of the following:

• Scottish Power
• Electricity North West
• National Grid
• British Telecom (BT)
• United Utilities
• Cadent
• One of our local housing associations

In addition to the above the Highway Service also processes matters relating to its schemes under the Land Compensation Act 1973. This requires us to hold additional personal information for proof of name and address checks and financial or banking details to enable us to validate and administer applications. As part of the administration of these claims independent valuers may be appointed to assist in the negotiation and agreement of compensation sums and will store your contact information for use only for this purpose. 

Annual Customer Satisfaction Survey

We annually collect customer feedback using our satisfaction survey for the purpose of research, consultation and engagement. We do this to consult with the local population to help improve our services. This years survey was administered on behalf of Cheshire East Highways by the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) and was live between 8 July 2024 and 30 September 2024. The survey is now closed. 

You can find out about how we use the personal data you provide in a survey in the Research and Consultation Team - privacy notice.

How long we hold your personal data for

In some instances we have legal obligations to retain some data in connection with our statutory obligations as a public authority. We aim to keep information only for as long as it is needed. How long we hold your information depends on the particular reason we collected the information from you. Full details on how long our service retains your information is listed in the Information Asset Register, under ‘Highways’. 

Will your information be used to make automated decisions

No

Your rights

You have a number of rights regarding your personal data. You can ask for a copy of the information we hold about you and ask us to correct anything that is wrong. For detailed information about your rights, see the Cheshire East Council Privacy Notice.