Who we are
We are the development management team in the planning department for the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority. This privacy notice explains how we use personal information in the course of our work as a local planning authority.
This work includes
- Making decisions and providing advice on planning applications
- Responding to allegations of unlawful development
- Monitoring development
- Entering legal agreements, serving notices and promoting the best use of land
If you have questions about data or privacy contact our data protection officer via email using this form.
How we get your information
Planning Applications
We get applicant information in two ways – it is supplied to us directly by an applicant (or via a planning agent on their behalf) or we receive it from a third party website that provides a transaction service. These include:
- The Wales Planning Portal
- iApply
We also receive comments, representations, allegations and questions via email, letter, and through our web site’s public access system.
Planning Enforcement
This is ordinarily received by email, telephone or letter or using our online complaints form.
What information do we collect
Planning Applications
Applicants and Agents: To allow us to make decisions on their applications applicants and agents must provide us with some personal information (e.g. name, address, contact details) and the name and contact details for the landowner. In a small number of circumstances individuals will provide us with “special category data” in support of their application (e.g. evidence of financial or medical history).
Members of the public commenting on planning applications: members of the public must provide a name, address and contact details when they comment on an application. Names and addresses are important for transparency and for officers to understand where identified issues will be experienced and/or features located.
Consultees (statutory bodies and other organisations): We will publish your comments on its website without modification including the name, address and contact details.
Planning Enforcement
This is ordinary received by email, telephone or letter or using our online complaints form.
In both circumstance above, we use the information provided to us to make decisions about the use of land in the public interest or as part of the decision to investigate or consider expediency of planning enforcement.
How we share your information
We do not sell your information to other organisations. We do not move your information outside the UK. We do not use your information for automated decision making. Some information provided to us we are obliged to make available on public planning registers. This is a permanent record of our planning decisions that form part of the planning history of a site, along with other facts that form part of the “land search”.
Planning Applications
We will make details of planning applications available online so that third parties can contribute their comments as part of the application process.
Applicant and agents details are retained in the planning file and published on the Public Access website.
Public comments are not published on the Public Access website. Copies of all public comments are available in the planning file as submitted in their original form. The Authority will permit any member of the public a right to inspect (or receive a copy) of the original file. Any personal or identifying information of the member of the public in the documentation will be redacted from the information that is disclosed.
The Authority also has a further duty to disclose information where requested under the Data Protection Act 2018, Freedom of Information Act 2000 or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. Any disclosure of information will be in accordance with legal obligations under such legislation. In practice this means that the Authority must disclose all information (in a redacted form to remove personal information) unless an exemption applies, this includes any correspondence marked as confidential.
All planning reports and documents will be drafted so that personal information in public comments will not be disclosed and only the planning merits or issues raised will be included in officer and committee reports.
Planning Enforcement
Your information will be used by us to record breaches of planning control in order to carry out our investigations. We will require your name, address and contact details in order to record a breach. This is a statutory requirement but your information will remain confidential within the enforcement and legal teams and not held in the public domain in the same way as a planning application.
We will sometimes need to share the information we have with other parts of the Authority-for example to establish how long a building has been used as a dwelling.
Your rights to your information
The law gives you a number of rights to control what personal information is used by us and how it is used by us.
You can ask for access to the information we hold on you
We would normally expect to share what we record about you with you whenever we assess your needs or provide you with services
You can ask us to change information you think is inaccurate
You should let us know if you disagree with something written on your file.
We may not always be able to change or remove that information but we’ll correct factual inaccuracies and may include your comments in the record to show that you disagree with it.
You can ask us to delete information (right to be forgotten)
In some circumstances you can ask for your personal information to be deleted, for example:
- Where your personal information is no longer needed for the reason why it was collected in the first place
- Where you have removed your consent for us to use your information (where there is no other legal reason for us to use it)
- Where there is no legal reason for the use of your information
- Where deleting the information is a legal requirement
Where your personal information has been shared with others, we’ll do what we can to make sure those using your personal information comply with your request for erasure.
You can ask to limit what we use your personal data for.
You have the right to ask us to restrict what we use your personal information for where:
- you have identified inaccurate information, and have told us of it
- where we have no legal reason to use that information but you want us to restrict what we use it for rather than erase the information altogether
When information is restricted it can’t be used other than to securely store the data and with your consent to handle legal claims and protect others, or where it’s for important public interests of the UK.
Where restriction of use has been granted, we’ll inform you before we carry on using your personal information.
You have the right to ask us to stop using your personal information for any service. However, if this request is approved this may cause delays or prevent us delivering that service.
Where possible we’ll seek to comply with your request, but we may need to hold or use information because we are required to by law.
Redaction (‘blanking things out’)
We operate a policy where we routinely redact the following details before making forms and documents available online:
- Personal contact details for the applicant/agent in planning applications – e.g. telephone numbers, email addresses, signatures (Note: names and addresses are available)
- Personal information for members of the public
- Special Category Data – e.g. supporting statements that include information about health conditions or ethnic origin,
- Commercially sensitive information
Sometimes we might decide it is necessary, justified and lawful to disclose data that appears in the list above.
If you are an applicant submitting ‘special category’ data as supporting information please let us know as soon as you can – ideally in advance of submitting the application. Please ensure any sensitive information is highlighted and marked as such. The best way to contact us about this issue is via email.
Retention (‘how long we keep your information for’)
We process many different types of information according to our retention policy. Below is a brief summary of how long we keep things before they are destroyed:
- Statutory registers (e.g. application forms, supporting documentation, planning decisions, approved plans, legal agreements, officer reports) – forever
- Consultation Responses, representations, letters, general correspondence – 5 years
Prior to February 2021, names and address of members of the public who commented on a planning application were referenced in the planning officer’s report. Where such report remains available online, the Authority will consider any request to redact such personal information under the right to be forgotten.
Complaints and problems
Making decisions on planning matters is a public task and you do not have the right to withdraw consent to your personal information being processed in order to carry out this task. However if you think we have got something wrong or there is a reason you would prefer for something to not be disclosed please ask us by contacting us via email using this form.
If you need to make a complaint specifically about the way we have processed your data you should in the first instance use our corporate complaints policy or contact our Data Protection Officer. If we fail to respond properly you can direct your concerns to the Information Commissioners Office.