Strategic Planning Team – Article 4 Direction

What personal information is being processed and what for

The Council will retain information and personal data provided in relation to consultation on Article 4 Direction(s). Responses can be collected via letter, e-mail or through online responses that are stored on UK based servers by the online account service that we use (‘Smart Survey’); please refer to their privacy policy for further information.

Information may include your name, email address, home or work address, telephone or mobile number. There is also information about your computer hardware and software that is automatically collected. This information can include unique identifiers such as your IP address.

In addition to the Personally identifiable information listed above, the Council may collect data on age, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation and if you are pregnant or on maternity leave. The smart survey consultation form will ask for consent in providing this information to the Council. We ask these questions to make sure that we comply with our duty required by the Equality Act 2010. Also, where necessary, we will use this data to assess whether there are differing views between any groups of people

Why we are allowed to use your information

It is a statutory requirement of the Town & Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 2015 to give notice of the making of Article 4 Directions and to invite representations to be made about them before any decision is taken whether to confirm them or not. As such, under local government legislation, this is a task in the public interest and in the exercise of official authority (General Data Protection Regulation Article 6, 1(e)) 

Who we will share your information with

The Strategic Planning Team will only share individual level data with other Council departments or other third parties if it is necessary to comply with a legal obligation or it is necessary for one of our official functions. We will provide summarised or grouped data to interested Council departments or external services where individuals cannot be personally identified.

Where we get your information from

 Information can be obtained from a range of sources including other relevant council departments such as the Cheshire East Licensing Team. Consultations and surveys may also be placed on the Cheshire East Council website. Responses can be collected via letter, e-mail or through online responses that are stored on UK based servers by the online account service that we use (‘Smart Survey’). Please refer to their privacy policy

How long we will keep your personal information

 We keep personal information in line with its retention schedule, which is based on retention guidelines for local authorities. You can see details of our retention guidelines on our information asset register.

How your information is stored 

Information and personal data submitted for consultation purposes will be retained securely and in line with Cheshire East’s retention guidelines.

Paper responses are stored in a locked cupboard. Online responses are stored on UK based servers by the online account service that we use (‘Smart Survey’); please refer to their privacy policy

Once responses are downloaded they are stored on Council servers in folders only accessed by the Research and Consultation Team and the Strategic Planning Team.

What happens if you don't provide us with your personal information

The Council has a duty to make sure that all documents and therefore all comments received are made available for public inspection under statutory provisions including the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985, the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Local Government Act 1972.  Your comments on planning policy documents / Article 4 Direction(s) and/or site(s) (or other information submitted to the Council) cannot be registered or used for the purposes of the development of planning policy / Article 4 Direction(s) if you do not provide your personal information.

Anonymous responses are not accepted.

For Article 4 Direction(s), information may be collected on age, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation and if you are pregnant or on maternity - We ask these questions to ensure we comply with our duty as part of the Equality Act 2010 and for monitoring purposes. Also where necessary we will use this data to assess whether there are differing views between any groups of people. This information is provided on a voluntary basis.

Will your information be used to make automated decisions

No

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 the Cheshire East privacy notice.