Planning (Development Management) - privacy notice

What personal information is being processed and what for

Planning Application Data:

Names, Addresses and Contact Details
Supporting Application Documents and Information which may include special category data

Planning legislation (the Town and Country Planning Act 1990) requires Cheshire East Council to make details of applicants and proposals for planning permission publicly available. These details include some personal information, such as names and addresses.

You need to be aware that when you submit a planning application to us, the application, plans and any related documents or comments that you send to us are permanently kept as part of the public record.

We have a statutory duty to make them available for any member of the public to see via our planning web pages and to have copies of. This includes planning application documents and consultation responses received in paper format, which we scan and keep electronically.

The information that you provide with a planning application will be processed by Cheshire East Council, which is the ‘data controller’ for the purposes of the Data Protection Act.

The information that you provide for a planning application, including personal data, will be used to deal with your planning application.

Why we are allowed to use your information

It is a statutory requirement of the Town & Country Planning

(Development Management Procedure) Order which is part of the wider Act for planning application processes to maintain a public register of planning applications, which is only available on the Council’s website, any data collected beyond the requirements of the register, including any comments made by members of the public are used because we have a public duty to deliver an effective and transparent planning service.

Who we will share your information with

Information is in the Public Domain

Planning legislation requires Cheshire East Council to make details of applicants, site addresses and proposals for planning permission available for public inspection. The Planning Register which holds the statutory information is only available on the Cheshire East Council website.

The name of the owner of a property or land, plus the address of that property or land, must usually be publicly available. The Council publishes any third party comments from neighbours, objectors, supporters (with the address of the person making the comment) received on planning applications and they may be reported to the Council’s Planning Committee in summary form. All comments received are also available for inspection by the public, agents, applicants and Councillors.

If you are making comments on a planning application, to reduce the chances of identity theft please remember to:

Include the minimum necessary personal information from correspondence – usually your name, address and, if you would like us to contact you in another way other than post, one form of other contact (telephone or email)

If you wish to send in comments by email, send them as an attachment to the email rather than in the email itself, so that your email address is not shown
Cheshire East Council will take into account unsigned comments on planning applications, but does require a name and a postal address so comments can be verified. Details such as signatures, personal telephone numbers and personal email addresses are redacted before being published on the internet but the address where the comments have come from will be published during the application process
Individuals have the right to access their personal data, this is commonly referred to as subject access and individuals can make a subject access request verbally or in writing

Planning Enforcement complainants remain confidential.

Where we get your information from

Planning Application Forms, Consultees, Complainants (for enforcement cases) and other Third Parties

How long we will keep your personal information

Third Party public comments will normally be removed from the website 6 months after a Planning Application has been determined and despatched – unless it has gone to appeal. At this point information from Third Parties will be retained on the public file for a further period of five years before being deleted from all files.

How your information is stored

Information is held electronically on council servers for authorised secure access by officers.

What happens if you don’t provide us with your information

Should submissions to the department not include the relevant details on planning applications forms then the application cannot be considered. It must meet the Town and Country Planning Act statutory requirements within the relevant Development Management Procedure Order (as amended) of).

Similarly, if we do receive third party comments on applications which do not have a name and address then we will be unable to consider those comments on applications.

Will your information be used to make automated decisions

Your rights

You have a number of rights regarding your personal data, including withdrawing your consent where we have asked for it.

You can also 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 please see our privacy notice.

Further information:

Individuals have a number of rights under data protection law, including the right to request their information. You also have a right to make a complaint about our handling of your personal data to the Information Commissioner’s Office. https://ico.org.uk

Further information is available from the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Phone: 01625 545 745

Page last reviewed: 14 November 2019