Privacy Notice and Data Protection

Who we are and what we do

Strategic Planning is concerned with producing the local planning documents and policies that are used to guide development in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames.

The Kingston Council Strategic Planning Team will contact you when we are consulting on the Local Plan and new planning policy documents so that you can give us your views and comments and they can be used in our decision-making process. From time to time we will also contact you regarding other relevant information relating to our policies.

Our Statement of Community Involvement gives further details of how we engage with the borough’s community.

What is being collected

We collect and store your contact details including your name, organisation name (if relevant) and email address and make sure they are accurate and up to date.

We also collect and store details about your age, gender, ethnic group and disability information if you give it to us in relation to Strategic Planning consultations.

If you remain anonymous and do not provide your contact details, we cannot consider your formal written comments.

Why we need it

We collect your contact details so that we can get in touch with you when we are consulting on new planning policy documents, including the Local Plan. You can then give us your views and comments and they can be considered when we make decisions relating to development in the borough.  From time to time we will also contact you to send you other relevant information and updates relating to our policies.

We collect age, gender, ethnic group and disability information from people who choose to give it to us so that we can check we are informing as wide a spread of people living in the borough as possible.

By looking at this information we can compare the profiles of people living in the borough with those on our database and then, if necessary, make extra efforts to communicate with those groups who may be under represented.

What we do with it and how it will be shared

If you choose to comment on any statutory consultation, your comment, together with your name and your organisation (if relevant) will be published so that members of the public can see it. It will be published on the Strategic Planning pages of our website, our online Consultation Portal and within any consultation report that summarises comments or responses to the issues raised. Signatures, addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers will not be shown (redacted).

All written comments received will be fully considered and from time to time we will contact you or your organisation so that we can discuss your views and suggestions further.   

We will not acknowledge submitted comments unless requested. We will not accept or publish any comments that are considered offensive or prejudiced.

The information that you have provided will be held by the council, stored securely and will only be accessed by authorised council employees. It will be processed in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation and other relevant legislation.

We will only use the information that you have provided for the purpose stated in the ‘Why we need it’ section above and will not use it for any other council purpose, unless we have your consent, or if this is provided for by law.

What is the legal basis for processing your data

The legal basis for processing your data when consulting anyone on the mailing list is consent. Our duties are to keep a record of consents.

The legal basis for processing your data as part of a response to a consultation is public task.

How long we keep it

Your personal data will be held on our database for a maximum of five years, when we will invite people to opt in again until you unsubscribe or unless we cannot contact you anymore.  Each time we contact you we will ask you if you still wish to be on the database.

The period of time responses to strategic planning consultations shall be kept will be in accordance with the retention schedule.

If you no longer wish to remain on our database, you can unsubscribe from the planning contacts database  or ask us to take you off our database by contacting us at localplan@kingston.gov.uk or writing to us at: Strategic Planning Team, Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, Guildhall 2, High Street, Kingston upon Thames, KT1 1EU . You will need to give us your full name and email address in order for us to take you off our database.

How to contact us

Please contact the Data Protection Officer if you have any questions about our privacy policy or information we hold about you:

• By email dpo@kingston.gov.uk