Fair processing notices - Planning policy

We will keep information and personal data  you provide in relation to consultation responses on planning policy documents you choose to take part in or requests to be added to our local plan consultation databases in order to be notified about future consultations and any other relevant matters.

References to planning policy documents can include:

• local plan documents such as the local plan strategy, site allocations and development policies document, and minerals and waste development plan document
• supplementary planning documents
• community infrastructure levy
• neighbourhood plan documents
• brownfield land register
• self-build or custom build housing registers
• strategic housing land availability assessments
• local development orders
• evidence-based documents that support the development of planning policy

The council also monitors policies in its planning policy annual monitoring report and the evidence which supports it. This includes reviewing information on housing, employment, retail and other related subjects with information held in appropriate databases. These databases retain planning applications and other information relevant to that purpose.

When you sign up to our local plan consultation database, contact the planning policy team or respond to any of our consultations on the above listed documents, the information may include your name, email address, home or work address, telephone or mobile number.

There is also information about your computer hardware and software that is automatically collected. This information can include unique identifiers such as your IP address. It may also include sites submitted to the council (received from landowners or their agents) who wish for their site to be considered for a future land use.

We may also hold information on people who write to or e-mail the council requesting information on planning policy matters.

We process personal information about:

• members of the public
• staff
• professional advisers and consultants
• representatives of statutory or other organisations
• elected members

We are allowed to use your information because it is a legal requirement for local authorities to produce local plan documents and as such is a task in the public interest and in the exercise of official authority.

The way in which planning policy documents are produced is governed by a range of legislation. In a number of cases this includes how they are consulted upon and how the council is expected to collect and present consultation responses in a transparent way. This legislation includes:

• Town and Country Planning Act 1990
• Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• Planning and Compensation Act 1991
• Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004
• Localism Act 2011
• Housing and Planning Act 2016
• Neighbourhood Planning Act 2017
• Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012
• Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012
• Town and Country Planning (Brownfield Land Register) Regulations 2017

We will share details in line with this privacy notice and when required to do so by law or statutory regulations in producing the development plan and planning policy documents. This may include:

• publishing your name, organisation, post town and comments in documentation which is made available, including on our web site
• providing your name, organisation, post town and comments to an independent planning inspector / examiner to consider the soundness and legal compliance of the planning policy documents being produced

Your data will not be used for marketing or automated decision purposes.

Notifications may be sent to you to provide updates on local plan consultations and related documentation.

We may share data with internal audit for the purpose of evaluating the effectiveness of the organisation’s risk management, control and governance processes. We may also share your data with our fraud team for the prevention and detection of fraud.

Information is received from responses to planning policy related documentation and from other plan making bodies. This will include consultation surveys often placed on the city council website. 

Stakeholders may request to be added to our Local Plan Consultation Database to receive updates on planning policy consultations.

Information and personal data submitted for consultation purposes will be retained securely and in line with  the city council’s retention guidelines with appropriate security controls in place to protect it, including passwords, authorised user access and encryption of data.

Paper responses are stored in a locked cupboard.

We only keep the data we hold for the time specified in our retention schedule or as required by law.

If you don’t provide us with your information your comments on planning policy documents or sites (or other information
submitted to the council) cannot be registered or used for the purposes of the development of planning policy. Anonymous responses are not accepted.

Data protection law provides you with certain rights, but not all of these rights will be available to you in all situations.  Where we are under a legal duty to use data for a particular purpose you will not have the right to prevent it being used in that way.

• you can ask to see the information we hold about you
• you can ask what is being done with the information we hold about you
• you can ask to have some of the data we hold about you deleted
• you can ask us to review a decision made about you by a computer, and ask for a new decision to be made by a person
• you can ask us to stop processing the data we hold about you
• you can ask us to make changes to data about you that you believe is inaccurate
• in some circumstances you can ask us to help you move your information to another organisation
• you can ask us to restrict or limit what we do with your data, for example if you believe the data we hold is inaccurate, or if you believe the processing in unlawful

If you wish to contact us in relation to any of your information rights, email foi@stoke.gov.uk or write to Information Rights Team, Floor 2, Civic Centre, Glebe Street, Stoke-on-Trent ST4 1HH.

Complete the online form

If you wish to complain about how your personal information has been handled by Stoke-on-Trent City Council, contact the information rights team in the first instance using the details above. If you are not satisfied you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, or call 03031231113

Information Commissioner's Office website

You can also call 01782 236339 or email Plan@stoke.gov.uk, or write to Joint Local Plan, Civic Centre, Stoke-on-Trent. ST4 1HH