PN177- Joint Local Development Plan Privacy Notice

Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen County Borough Councils are 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. It is necessary for the Councils to gather, collect, store and process personal information relating to people submitting candidate sites, those participating in the preparation of commenting on the Plan or associated documents including Supplementary Planning Guidance.

TCBC Service Area: Economy & Place
Work area: Planning Policy & Implementation
Contact Details: Email: ldp@torfaen.gov.uk or adrian.wilcock@torfaen.gov.uk - Telephone: 01633 648039

BGCBC Service Area: Economy & Place
Work area: Development Plans
Contact Details: Email: planningpolicy@blaenau-gwent.gov.uk or john.raine@blaenau-gwent.gov.uk - Telephone: 01495 369668

Privacy Notice Name: Joint Local Development Plan

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

Data Controller: Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council, General Offices, Steelworks Road, Ebbw Vale, NP23 8UW

If you wish to raise a concern about the handling of your personal data, please contact the Data Protection Officer using the details below: 

Torfaen - Tel: 01495 762200 - Email: dpa@torfaen.gov.uk

Blaenau Gwent - Tel: 01495 355080 - Email: dataprotection@blaenau-gwent.gov.uk

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

  • JLDP Delivery Agreement
  • Call for Candidate Sites and their Assessments
  • Integrated Sustainability Appraisal (ISA)
  • Habitats Regulations Assessments (HRA)
  • Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) documents (attached to the Joint Local Development Plan)
  • Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)

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 JLDP process)
  • Electronic forms via survey on the TCBC and BGCBC 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

Who is responsible for your information?

All personal information is held and processed by Torfaen County Borough Council and Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council in accordance with Data Protection legislation. For information on the role of the Data Controller, Data Protection Officer and Contact Details for the Council, please refer to the ‘Data Protection’ page of the Council’s websites:

What information does the Council collect about you?

The Planning Policy and Development Plans Teams collect the following information: 

Call for Candidate Sites Exercise

  • 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 JLDP 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; and

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

We also require this information to carry out our duties under the:

  • Town & Country Planning Act 1990 and associated Regulations
  • Planning and Compensation Act 1991 - amended the above Act
  • Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 - amended the Town and Country Planning Act 1990
  • Sections 19, 28 & 62 of the Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act (PCPA) 2004
  • Part 11 of the Planning Act 2008
  • Town and Country Planning (Local Development Plan) (Wales) Regulations 2005 (as amended) (the LDP Regulations)
  • Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes (Wales) Regulations 2004 (the SEA Regulations);
  • Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 (as amended)
  • Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010 (as amended)
  • National Planning Policy / Planning Policy Wales (PPW)
  • Development Plans Manual 3 (2020) published by Welsh Government

We need this information to:

  • Process your candidate site submission
  • Report on participating in developing the Preferred Strategy
  • Process comments on the Development Plan (Preferred Strategy, Deposit Plan, Sustainability Appraisal/Strategic Environmental Assessment, Habitat Regulation Assessment and the Candidate Sites Register and Assessments)
  • Process comments on Supplementary Planning Guidance
  • To contact you for research purposes to enable us to improve the services we offer. We may contact you by email, letter or phone.

If we have your consent to use your personal information, you have the right to remove it at any time. If you want to remove your consent, please contact DataProtection@blaenau-gwent.gov.uk or dpa@torfaen.gov.uk tell us which service you’re using so we can deal with your request.

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?

To enable the Council to deal with your involvement in the process and comply with our legal obligations, we will share your information with partner organisations, including:

  • Internally within Torfaen County Borough Council and Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council
  • Your legal representatives
  • Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW) - planning inspectors
  • ICT service provider - SRS (Shared Resource Service Wales)

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 and representations made on the plan and associated documents. These may include, but not be limited to:

  • JDI Solutions Limited and Blue Fox Technology Limited who maintain the Opus Consult/Map System
  • Consultants appointed to undertake these assessments (subject to a Data Processing Agreement)

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: Respondents to the Deposit Plan consultation may be invited to make their representation in person to an independent Inspector(s) during an Examination of the Plan. 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 Officer 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.  Our processors are located or process data outside of the UK, it is within the European Economic Area and the appropriate Data Protection provisions are in place.

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.

Providing accurate information

It is important that we hold accurate and up to date information about you in order to assess your needs and deliver the appropriate services. If any of your details are incorrect or incomplete, please ensure that you tell us as soon as possible so that we can update your records.

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 Commissioner’s Office)

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact:

  • Adrian Wilcock, Team Leader Planning Policy and Implementation, Torfaen County Borough Council, Civic Centre, Glantorfaen Road, Pontypool, NP4 6YB  adrian.wilcock@torfaen.gov.uk or
  • John Raine, Development Plans Team Manager, Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council, The General Offices, Steelworks Road, Ebbw Vale, NP23 6DN john.raine@blaenau-gwent.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: 11/03/2026 Back to top