Planning Enforcement and the use of Council Tax data privacy notice

This privacy notice should be read in conjunction with Colchester City Council’s Privacy Policy.

This privacy notice sets out what personal data we will use, how we will use it, and why we need to in respect of using and accessing council tax data base pertaining to complaints and investigations.  

Information collected

We collect and process personal data that you provide to us which may include:

• basic personal details, such as , name, contact details (phone number, email address, address), date of birth.

Agencies we may share your data with

Whilst working with you, we may share your information with some of the following third parties:

• Internal departments such as our legal team.
• Local courts for enforcement action. If cases go to court then the details of any person involved in the breach of planning will be shared and may be given to the press. If a person who reports a complaint about someone needs to give evidence, which is rare, then their details will be made known in court.
• Police (if an offence occurs we may need to share information with the police).

The purpose and lawful basis for processing 

The lawful basis for the processing of your personal data is a legal obligation. Colchester City Council requires the above information in order to investigate planning complaints, and where necessary enforcement action.

The law concerning planning applications is derived from the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and The Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015. We only request the minimum amount of information and ensure that is it stored securely.

Length of time we keep your personal data

We will only hold your personal data for as long as necessary and in line with our retention schedules.

How we protect and store your personal data

We take the confidentiality of personal information very seriously and use recognised security and access controls to protect your information from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration or corruption.

We have procedures and processes in place to ensure that your personal information is managed appropriately. Your information may be held outside of the UK. Where this is the case, we ensure that additional measures are in place to protect your data and to ensure that we continue to comply with data protection requirements.

We use cloud providers and online application providers to help us run our business. Therefore the use of some of our systems may include the transfer of your personal data to other countries. Your data will only be transferred to other countries which have adequate provision in place to protect personal data to an equivalent level as personal data held in the UK.

Updates to this privacy notice

We will continually review and update this privacy notice to reflect changes in our processes and procedures, as well as to comply with changes in the law. When such changes occur, we will revise the 'last updated' date on this notice. We encourage you to periodically review this notice and to be informed of how we are protecting your information.