We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data.
This privacy notice explains what types of personal information we collect about you when you interact with our planning service, what we do with that personal information and the legal basis for our processing of your personal information.
It also explains how we keep your personal information safe and secure.
We take our data protection obligations very seriously and this notice gives you information about our approach to data protection legislation (UK General Data Protection Regulation, Data Protection Act 2018 and any subsequent updated legislation).
The type of personal information we collect
Lichfield District Council is the data controller for your information.
This privacy notice supplements the information the council currently makes available about how the organisation meets core data protection obligations. Our commitments are set out in our main privacy notice.
The standard planning application forms require you to provide your personal information. If you do not give us your contact details, we will not be able to update you on the progress of your application or provide advice unless you are using a planning agent.
We currently collect and process the following information:
- Name
- Address
- Email address
- Telephone number
- Bank details
- Agent contact details (if applicable)
- Full address of the development
- Special categories of data (if applicable)
If you are submitting supporting information which you would like to be treated confidentially or wish to be specifically withheld from the public register, please let us know as soon as you can, ideally before submitting the application. You can do this by contacting the relevant planning officer.
If you submit special category data in support of your planning application, we will use it for the purposes of processing your application. The types of special category data we may collect to support your application include:
- Data revealing racial or ethnic origin
- Religious beliefs
- Data concerning health
To ensure compliance with the Equality Act, data concerning health and/or age intended to justify adaptions to, and uses of, buildings, and data pertinent to understanding the weight to be attributed to considerations under human rights legislation, including the rights of the child, may be collected.
How we get the personal information and why we have it
Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for one of the following reasons:
- Requesting advice before submitting a planning application
- Making a planning application
- Requesting additional information in relation to a planning application
- Commenting on a planning application
We also receive personal information indirectly from the following sources and in the following circumstances:
- If you use an agent, they will provide your personal information to use on the planning application
We use the information that you have given us in order to:
- Publicise applications in various ways to seek comments and information
- Process applications
- Notify other organisations of proposals to seek their view
- Writing reports and making decisions
- System testing
We may share this information with:
- Lichfeld West Midlands Traded Services (LWMTS) - LWMTS is the council's wholly owned subsidary which processes planning appliations on behalf of Lichfield District Council.
- Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
- Planning Inspectorate
- Locally elected councillors
- Parish councils
- Other departments or organisations for comment
Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful basis we rely on for processing this information is legal obligation Article 6(1)(c):
The following legislation sets out the legal obligation to process this information:
- Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015
- Equality Act 2010
- Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014
How we store your personal information
Your information is securely stored electronically on our database system and document management system provided by IDOX.
Applications submitted through the Planning Portal once recieved by us, are stored securelty on our Uniform system. Access is restricted to our planning and ICT teams.
Forms completed on www.lichfielddc.gov.uk are stored securely on our CXM system provided by Jadu. Access is restricted to our customer services team, planning team, digital team and ICT teams.
All emails received are stored securely on our server. Access is restricted to our planning and ICT teams.
- All planning application records are kept indefinitely.
- All records relating to s106 agreements are kept for a period of six years.
- All records relating to the planning consultation process are kept for a period of 15 years.
- All records relating to planning pre-application advice are kept for a period of 15 years from the last recorded correspondence relating to the matter.
- All other records are automatically removed fromour systems, as soon as they are no longer required to carry out our duties.
Data may be held in the cloud by UiPath during automated processing and auto deleted from there after 24 hrs.
Your data protection rights
The lawful basis for processing can affect which rights are available to you as outlined in the table within the overarching privacy notice. You have the following rights:
- Your right of access
- Your right to rectification
- Your right to restriction of processing
You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.
Please contact us at dpo@lichfeilddc.gov.uk if you wish to make a request.
How to complain
Information on how to raise any concerns about our use of your personal information is available in the overarching privacy notice.
If you have any concerns about how your data is processed or retained, then please email our planning team.
Alternatively you may wish to email our data protection officer or you can complain to the Information Commissioner.