PN139 - Replacement Local Development Plan Privacy Notice

Torfaen County Borough Council is committed to protecting your privacy when you use our services. This Privacy Notice is designed to give you information about the data we hold about you, how we use it, your rights in relation to it and the safeguards in place to protect it.

TCBC Service Area: Economy & Environment
Work Area: Planning Policy & Implementation
Contact Details: Email ldp@torfaen.gov.uk or adrian.wilcock@torfaen.gov.uk - Telephone: 01633 648039
Privacy Notice Name: Replacement Local Development Plan

Data controller: Torfaen County Borough Council, c/o Civic Centre, Pontypool, NP4 6YB

If you wish to raise a concern about the handling of your personal data, please contact the Data Protection Officer on 01495 762200 or email dpa@torfaen.gov.uk

This Privacy Notice has been written specifically to cover the various stages of the Replacement Local Development Plan (RLDP) process for Torfaen County Borough Council. Alongside the RLDP itself, we will engage stakeholders and undertake public consultation with regard to the following related documents:

  • Candidate Sites Assessments
  • Integrated Sustainability Appraisal
  • Habitats Regulations Assessments
  • Supplementary Planning Guidance documents (attached to the Local Development Plan and/or Replacement Local Development Plan)
  • Community Infrastructure Levy

Who provides your data to the Council?

The personal information we process is provided to us directly by you, or by your agent (as authorised by you), in response to:

  • Council’s Call for Candidate Sites
  • Stakeholder Workshops / Engagement
  • Public / Stakeholder Consultation Opportunities
  • Requests to be notified of updates and progress regarding the RLDP and any consultation opportunities.

We do not receive personal information indirectly from any other source.

How does the Council collect this information?

  • Electronic forms via OpusConsult (a specific database to support the RLDP process)
  • Electronic forms via survey on the TCBC webpages
  • PDF / Word forms emailed to the Team
  • Paper forms, manually completed and posted to the Team
  • Emails received by the Team
  • Letters received by the Team
  • Face to face contact with the Team
  • Stakeholder Workshop minutes taken by the Team

What information does the Council collect about you?

The Planning Policy and Implementation Team collects:

Council’s Call for Candidate Sites:

  • Names of site proposers (company / organisation) and / or agents
  • Contact details (postal address, email address, telephone number)
  • Land ownership regarding the candidate site

Stakeholder Workshops / Engagement:

  • Name
  • Job Title and Employer / Organisation (if applicable)
  • Contact details (postal address and / or email address, telephone number)
  • Any personal information revealed by comments made (in writing or verbally)

Public Consultation Opportunities:

  • Name
  • Job Title and Employer / Organisation (if applicable)
  • Contact details (postal address and / or email address, telephone number)
  • Any personal information revealed by comments made

Requests to be notified of updates and progress regarding the RLDP and any consultation opportunities:

  • Name
  • Job Title and Employer / Organisation (if applicable)
  • Contact details (postal address and / or email address)

Why does the Council process your personal data?

Under Article 6 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:

(a) Your consent. This is if you subscribe to receive updates from us. Consent only relates to the specific purpose for which it has been given and you can withdraw your consent at any time. We do not rely on consent as a lawful basis for any other processing.

(c) We have a legal obligation.

(e) We need it to perform a public task.

The key components making up the form and structure of an RLDP, its preparation, and associated Candidate Sites Assessment Report (CSAR); Integrated Sustainability Appraisal (ISA), Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA), Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG), and Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), are set out in Legislation (Sections 19 & 62 of the Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act (PCPA) 2004; Section 222(2)(b) of the Planning Act 2008; Section 11 of the Planning (Wales) Act 2015; the Town and Country Planning (Local Development Plan) (Wales) Regulations 2005 (as amended) (the LDP Regulations), the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes (Wales) Regulations 2004 (the SEA Regulations); the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 (as amended); the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010 (as amended); national planning policy (PPW); and the Development Plans Manual 3 (2020) published by Welsh Government.

Special categories of personal data

We do not ask you to provide any special category or criminal data, however, these may be collected if you include such information in open text / comments.

Who has access to your data?

Your data is shared internally only with the appropriate staff where it is necessary for the performance of their roles.

Your data may also be shared externally with organisations for the purpose of maintaining the Opus Consult database and for undertaking appropriate assessment of candidate sites. These may include, but not be limited to:

  • JDI Solutions
  • Gwent Wildlife Trust

Apart from where previously stated, we do not pass your details to third parties unless we are lawfully required do so.

Call for Candidate Sites

Upon receipt, each Candidate Site is given a reference number.  A publicly available Candidate Sites Register is published with the reference number and company / organisation name or by a ‘landowner(s)’ / ‘interested party(ies)’ description.  All proposer contact details remain private.

Stakeholder Workshops / Engagement

Minutes of workshops and meetings are retained by the PPI Team and used to compile a Report of Consultation which is published. Attendees are noted by the company / organisation that they represent or as ‘interested parties’. Comments are attributed accordingly to either a company / organisation or ‘interested party’. Attendee details including personal identity and contact details remain private.  A list of those invited / attending is included.

Public Consultation Opportunities

All respondents are attributed a representor / representation number. Upon completion of each consultation, the Council is required to compile and publish a Report of Consultation in which each response received is detailed and addressed by officers. Comments made by individuals are referred to by representor number only. Comments submitted on behalf of a company / organisation, are referred to by representor number and company / organisation. No individual persons’ name or contact details are published in the Report of Consultation.

The Council is also required, under Section 19 of the LDP Regulations, to make a copy of any Deposit Plan representation available at the places at which the Deposit Plan documents were made available for public inspection.  Copies will have personal data other than company / organisation names removed before being made available.

Examination

All respondents to the Deposit Plan consultation will be invited to make their representation in person to an independent Inspector during an Examination in Public. At an Examination pre-meeting, the Inspector may, to avoid duplication, ask for a spokesperson to be chosen when several representors have made similar comments, but have all indicated that they wish to attend.  If this happens you will be asked for your permission by the Programme Office to share your contact details.

Those who choose to participate in the Examination should note that any examination statements / documents provided are required to be published by the Council, as is the Inspector’s Report of the Examination. Only the respondents name and comments made will be published.

Is the Data transferred out of the UK?

Yes. OpusConsult V2 currently runs on a cloud server at Amazon’s Ireland data centre based in Dublin. Overnight backups are encrypted before transfer and stored within the EU. Amazon are ISO 27001 certified.

How does the Council keep your data secure?

The Council has internal policies in place to ensure the data it processes is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed. Access to this data is restricted in accordance with the Council’s internal policies and in compliance with the UK GDPR.

Data will be stored securely in:

  • Secure Network
  • Secure Cloud
  • Secured Physical storage for paper and hard copies

Where the Council engages third parties to process personal data on its behalf, they do so on the basis of written instructions. These third parties are also under a duty of confidentiality and are obliged to implement appropriate measures to ensure the security of data.

How long does the Council keep your data?

The Council will hold your personal data only for the period that is necessary and will follow organisational and Local Authority standards in this area. At the end of the retention period the Council will securely destroy or dispose of the data in line with retention schedules.

Are we making automated decisions/profiling with your data?

No

Your rights

You have a number of Rights you can exercise:

  • Access - to obtain a copy of your data on request
  • Rectification – to require the Council to change incorrect or incomplete data
  • Object, Restrict or Delete - under certain circumstances you can require the Council to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing
  • Data portability – to receive and/or transmit data provided to the Council to other organisations (this applies in limited circumstances)
  • Withdraw your consent at any time (where consent has been given)
  • To know the consequences of failing to provide data to the Council
  • To know the existence of any Automated Decision-making, including profiling, and the consequences of this for you.
  • To lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority (Information Commissioners Office)

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact:  Adrian Wilcock, Planning Policy and Implementation, Torfaen County Borough Council, Civic Centre, Glantorfaen Road, Pontypool, NP4 6YB - adrian.wilcock@torfaen.gov.uk

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office (Wales), 2nd Floor, Churchill House, Churchill Way, Cardiff, CF10 2HH. Telephone 0330 414 6421 or e-mail: Wales@ico.org.uk

Last Modified: 25/04/2024 Back to top