Planning privacy notice
Who we are
This privacy notice explains how City of Lincoln Council (CoLC) uses information in the course of our work as a local planning authority. This work includes:
- Making decisions and providing advice on planning applications
- Administration of planning appeals
- 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 please contact our Information Governance Officer via 01522 881188.
How we get your information
We get information in different ways – for planning applications it is most commonly supplied to us directly (or via a planning agent on their behalf) or we receive it from a third party website that provides a transaction service, such as The Planning Portal.
We also receive comments, representations, allegations and questions via email, letter, and through our website. This information may also be used, and provided to, the Secretary of State in any subsequent planning appeal.
Finally, information may be submitted to the council for other planning purposes, such as site registers that will contain the details of a site owner or their agent, or from individuals or agents that wish to register their interest in available sites or land (such as the Self and Custom Build Register).
What we do with your information
To allow us to make decisions on their applications individuals must provide us with some personal data (e.g. name, address, contact details). In a small number of circumstances, individuals will provide us with “special category data” in support of their application (e.g. evidence of medical history).
The council use the information provided to us to make decisions about the use of land in the public interest; this is known as a public task, and we do not need you to “opt in” to allow your information to be used.
Find out more about a ‘Public task’ via the Information Commissioner's Office website
Some information provided to us we are obliged under the regulations to make available on 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”.
How we share your information
We do not sell your information to other organisations. We do not move your information beyond the UK. We do not use your information for automated decision-making.
We will make details of planning applications online so that people can contribute their comments. We will sometimes need to share the information we have with other parts of the Council, for example to establish how long a building has been used as a dwelling.
Redaction
We operate a policy where we routinely redact the following details before making forms and documents available online:
- Personal contact details for the applicant – e.g. Telephone numbers, email addresses
- Signatures
- Special Category Data – e.g. Supporting statements that include information about health conditions or ethnic origin
- Information agreed to be confidential
Sometimes we might decide it is necessary, justified and lawful to disclose data that appears in the list above. In these circumstances we will let you know of our intention before we publish anything.
If you are submitting supporting information that you would like to be treated confidentially or wish to be specifically withheld from the public register, please let us know and soon as you can, ideally in advance of submitting the application. The best way to contact us about this issue is via email at developmentteam@lincoln.gov.uk or telephone 01522 873474.
Retention
We process many different types of information according to our retention policy.
A brief summary of how long we keep things before they are destroyed:
- Statutory registers (planning decisions, approved plans, legal agreements etc.) – forever
- Supporting documents, reports – 6 years for committee decision, 4 years for officer decisions
- Representations, letters, general correspondence – 10 years but removed from website following decision, anonymised after 6 years for committee decision, 4 years for officer decisions
Complaints and problems
Making decisions on planning matters is a public task and you do not have the right to withdraw consent. However if you think we have got something wrong or there is a reason you would prefer to something to not be disclosed please ask us by emailing developmentteam@lincoln.gov.uk or telephone 01522 873474.
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 available on the website. If we fail to respond properly, you can direct your concerns to the Information Commissioners Office
