Planning Policy Privacy Notice | Greater Cambridge Shared Planning

Consultation and Notifications: Privacy Notice

As part of the data protection regulations that came into force in 2018, we cannot send you any mailings in relation to public consultations or notifications on our planning policy documents without you giving us consent to do so. Therefore, to receive mailings from us you need to opt-in to one or more of our ‘areas of interest’.

When registering on our consultation database OpusConsult, you can set your own preferences for which ‘areas of interest’ you would like to receive notifications for. If at any point you no longer want to receive notifications, you can update this in your account preferences.

This privacy notice sets out how your personal data will be used and by whom, if you opt-in to any of our ‘areas of interest’ and therefore give us consent to use your personal data to send you future mailings in relation to public consultations or notifications on our planning policy documents.

Who is responsible for holding your personal data?

South Cambridgeshire District Council at South Cambridgeshire Hall, Cambourne Business Park, Cambourne, Cambridge, CB23 6EA and Cambridge City Council at Cambridge City Council, PO Box 700, Cambridge, CB1 0JH are the data controllers responsible for holding your personal data.

The Data Protection Officer is the Information Governance Manager at 3C Shared Services, who can be contacted by post: Information Management Team, 3C ICT, South Cambridgeshire Hall, Cambourne Business Park, Cambourne, Cambridge, CB23 6EA or by emailing Infogov@3csharedservices.org.

3C Shared Services is a strategic partnership between Cambridge City Council, Huntingdonshire District Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council.

How will your personal data be held?

Your personal data will be held in our consultation database and will be used by the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service (a shared service for South Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridge City Council) to carry out mailings in relation to public consultations or notifications on our planning policy documents.

How will your personal data be used?

Your personal data will be used by the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service to carry out mailings in relation to public consultations and notifications on our planning policy documents. We will let you know of public consultations and any other notifications in relation to the ‘areas of interest’ that you have opted-in to, and therefore given us consent to contact you about.

Will any of my personal data be shared with others?

Your personal data will be used by the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service to carry out mailings in relation to public consultations and notifications on our planning policy documents. South Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridge City Council share the responsibility for the preparation of Neighbourhood Plans with the relevant Parish Councils or Neighbourhood Forum. If you opt-in to being notified about one or all of our Neighbourhood Plans, we will share your personal data with the relevant Parish Councils or Neighbourhood Forum for that Neighbourhood Plan so that where they are the responsible authority they can notify you.

How long will my personal data be kept?

We will review the personal data that we hold for mailings every two years to ensure that our mailing lists remain current, and therefore for us to continue to hold your personal data after the point of review, you will need to re-confirm your preferences when we write to you. You can opt-out of us holding your personal data for mailings at any time.

What are my rights?

You hold the following rights with regard to the personal data you provide us:

The Right to Rectification: you have the right to have any inaccurate or incomplete personal data rectified.
The Right to Erasure (once consent has been withdrawn).
The Right to Restriction - You have the right to request a restriction of the processing of your personal data in situations where it is inaccurate, unlawful, and no longer needed for the purposes for which it was originally collected, or if withdrawal of consent has been made.
The Right to Data Portability - You have the right to request your personal data you have provided to us to be supplied in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format (for example, CSV). You may request that this information is supplied directly to another data controller on your behalf.

It is also your right to request a copy of what is held about you, this is called a Subject Access Request. If you would like to make a formal Subject Access Request, please email Infogov@3csharedservices.org; or write to the Information Governance Team, 3C ICT, South Cambridgeshire Hall, Cambourne Business Park, Cambourne, Cambridge, CB23 6EA. If any of your personal data that we hold is inaccurate, you have the right to have it corrected.

You can view your own personal data that we hold on our consultation database at any point by logging into your record(s) on the consultation database OpusConsult. You can also login to the consultation database to update your details at any time. For this your account(s) on our consultation database will need to include an email address, as this is your unique identifier to allow you to login.

If your account(s) on our consultation database do not include an email address, you will need to contact the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service to request a copy of your personal data that we hold on the consultation database or to update your details:

by email: Localplan@greatercambridgeplanning.org or
by post: South Cambridgeshire Hall, Cambourne Business Park, Cambourne, Cambridge, CB23 6EA or Cambridge City Council, PO Box 700, Cambridge, CB1 0JH.

Can I opt-out in future? How do I opt-out?

If you change your mind and no longer wish to receive mailings from us in relation to public consultations and notifications on our planning policy documents, you can opt out at any time either by deselecting any of your ‘areas of interest’ using the consultation database OpusConsult or by writing to the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service:

by email: Localplan@greatercambridgeplanning.org; or
by post: South Cambridgeshire Hall, Cambourne Business Park, Cambourne, Cambridge, CB23 6EA or Cambridge City Council, PO Box 700, Cambridge, CB1 0JH.

The consultation database will allow you to permanently delete your account(s) and therefore all your personal data, provided that there are no representations attached to your account(s). Where you have made representations, we will retain your representations made with the associated personal data for fifteen years from the date of adoption of that planning policy document.

Can I make a complaint about how my data is held?

We hope this privacy notice provides you with a clear explanation of what we do with your personal data and why, however if you have any queries or concerns please contact the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service directly in the first instance:

by email Localplan@greatercambridgeplanning.org;
or by post: South Cambridgeshire Hall, Cambourne Business Park, Cambourne, Cambridge, CB23 6EA or Cambridge City Council, PO Box 700, Cambridge, CB1 0JH.

Alternatively you can take your concerns to The Data Protection Officer by email: Infogov@3csharedservices.org or by post: Information Governance Manager, 3C ICT, South Cambridgeshire Hall, Cambourne Business Park, Cambourne, Cambridge, CB23 6EA.

Representations on Planning Policy documents: Privacy Notice

This privacy notice sets out how your personal data will be used and by whom, if you make or have previously made comments (known as representations) through one of our public consultations on one or more planning policy documents, such as the Local Plan or a Neighbourhood Plan.

On our consultation database OpusConsult, you are able to access a record of drafted and submitted representations.

Who is responsible for holding your personal data?

3C Shared Services is a strategic partnership between Cambridge City Council, Huntingdonshire District Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council.

How will your personal data be held?

Your personal data will be held along with your associated representation(s) in our consultation database and will be used by the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service (a shared service for South Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridge City Council). We also securely store paper and electronic copies of representations.

How will your personal data be used?

During the preparation of planning policy documents, we are required through national legislation, regulations and guidance to undertake public consultation at one or more stages, and to allow representations to be submitted to the Councils. For many of these consultations, a representation can only be considered to be valid if you (the respondent(s)) and your agent (if you choose to use one), provide us with some personal data such as your name, organisation (if applicable), postal address, and email address so that we can contact you in relation to your representation.

Your personal data will therefore be used by the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service to process your representation(s) or contact you in relation to your representation(s) as required through national legislation, regulations and guidance.

Will any of my personal data be shared with others?

Representations, including names, are published on our website. Before we publish any representations on our website we redact (‘blank out’) the following details:

personal contact details for you (the respondent(s)) and your agent such as addresses, email addresses, and telephone numbers;
signatures; and
sensitive personal data identified as special category data as defined in the Data Protection Act 2018.

Full representations, including personal data such as addresses and email addresses are publicly available to view on request at the Councils’ offices and may be subject to Freedom of Information requests.

Your personal data will be used by the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service to process your representation(s) or contact you in relation to your representation(s) as required through national legislation, regulations and guidance. We will share your personal data with the Inspector(s) and Programme Officer(s) appointed to undertake any examinations in accordance with legal requirements. We may also share your personal data with consultants or legal advisers appointed by the Councils to undertake specific projects or to provide advice during the plan making process.

South Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridge City Council share the responsibility for the preparation of Neighbourhood Plans with the relevant Parish Councils or Neighbourhood Forum. We will share your personal data with the relevant Parish Councils or Neighbourhood Forum for that Neighbourhood Plan where necessary as required through national legislation, regulations and guidance.

Where necessary, we will also share your personal data with the examiner appointed to undertake the examination of the Neighbourhood Plan in accordance with legal requirements.

How long will my personal data be kept?

We will retain representations made with the associated personal data for fifteen years from the date of adoption of a planning policy document. This is in accordance with legal requirements and the Councils’ Retention Policy.

What are my rights?

You hold the following rights with regard to the personal data you provide us:

The Right to Rectification: you have the right to have any inaccurate or incomplete personal data rectified.
The Right to Erasure (once consent has been withdrawn).
The Right to Restriction - You have the right to request a restriction of the processing of your personal data in situations where it is inaccurate, unlawful, and no longer needed for the purposes for which it was originally collected, or if withdrawal of consent has been made.
The Right to Data Portability - You have the right to request your personal data you have provided to us to be supplied in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format (for example, CSV). You may request that this information is supplied directly to another data controller on your behalf.

It is also your right to request a copy of what is held about you, this is called a Subject Access Request. If you would like to make a formal Subject Access Request, please email: Infogov@3csharedservices.org; or write to the Information Governance Team, 3C ICT, South Cambridgeshire Hall, Cambourne Business Park, Cambourne, Cambridge, CB23 6EA..

If any of your personal data that we hold is inaccurate, you have the right to have it corrected. You can view your own personal data that we hold on our consultation database (South Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridge City Council) at any point by logging into your record(s) on the consultation database OpusConsult. You can also login to the consultation database to update your details at any time. For this your account(s) on our consultation database will need to include an email address, as this is your unique identifier to allow you to login.

by email: Localplan@greatercambridgeplanning.org; or
by post: South Cambridgeshire Hall, Cambourne Business Park, Cambourne, Cambridge, CB23 6EA or Cambridge City Council, PO Box 700, Cambridge, CB1 0JH.

Can I opt-out in future? How do I opt-out?

Processing representations made on planning policy documents is a statutory duty (public task) as laid out in national planning regulations, which means that the processing and retaining of personal data is required to comply with those regulations.

However, if you decide that you do not wish to be contacted by us in relation to your representation(s), you should let us know this by writing to the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service:

by email: Localplan@greatercambridgeplanning.org or
by post: South Cambridgeshire Hall, Cambourne Business Park, Cambourne, Cambridge, CB23 6EA or Cambridge City Council, PO Box 700, Cambridge, CB1 0JH.

Can I make a complaint about how my data is held?

by email: Localplan@greatercambridgeplanning.org; or
by post: South Cambridgeshire Hall, Cambourne Business Park, Cambourne, Cambridge, CB23 6EA or Cambridge City Council, PO Box 700, Cambridge, CB1 0JH.

Alternatively, you can take your concerns to: The Data Protection Officer by email: Infogov@3csharedservices.org or by post: Information Governance Manager, 3C ICT, South Cambridgeshire Hall, Cambourne Business Park, Cambourne, Cambridge, CB23 6EA.

Use of artificial intelligence (AI) for processing data including personal data

We are currently implementing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to further develop our service to customers. When sharing information with us during consultations on planning policy documents, AI may be used to process and summarise your submission.

Where representations are submitted by email or post, the AI tool will summarise the submission unless clearly stated in the letter or email that AI should not be used. In this case, the submission will be summarised by a planning officer. When using the councils’ consultation platform (OpusConsult), there is also an option to opt out for the customer to not use AI to summarise the original representation when submitted.

It is possible that representations may also contain personal data. As its forms part of the original representation, it will form part of the information that will be used by our AI tool to summarise the representation. When summaries of representations are produced in reports, AI technologies will be used to create the report, but no personal details will be used in these reports.

It is important to note that all submissions and representations summarised using AI will be reviewed by officers for accuracy and quality purposes.

Whilst we are at the initial stages of implementing AI, considerations in this privacy notice may be subject to change. Your information may be shared with trusted partners and this will be kept under review to ensure the Privacy Notice remains up to date and accurate.