Information to be made publicly available
In order to comply with our statutory obligations, we must make certain details about planning related applications available in the form of a public register. Regulations also permit and actively encourage this information to be made available online. This includes the name and address of the applicant and, where an agent is acting for the applicant, the name and address of that agent.
We will publish a copy of your completed application form and relevant supporting documents and drawings on our website. We may publish comments and objections on our website, and this will include your name and possibly your address. If the Council’s decision on the application is appealed, the Government’s Planning Inspectorate, who considers the appeal, will ask for copies of all application correspondence and they may also publish comments online.
The law requires us to maintain the information on the register of planning applications indefinitely, and as such information relating to applications will be available on our website permanently. Comments and objections on applications do not form part of the statutory register, and as such we will only retain these for twelve months following a decision being made unless an appeal is lodged.
In order to protect your personal data from any unnecessary disclosure, we will remove personal telephone numbers, mobile numbers, email addresses and signatures from the information that may be viewed online, but we will not as standard remove these details where they relate to your professional capacity (e.g. as an agent).
We will also remove any sensitive personal data that is legitimately required in the application process, such as information about your health, prior to publication.
We also reserve the right not to publish any documents containing perceived insulting, offensive, abusive or obscene comments.
In order to ensure that no unnecessary personal data is published online, please consider the following:
We strongly recommend that you indicate any documents (in whole or in part) containing personal information that you they do not want to be seen by the public. However, we have a legal duty to make available certain details available, so we cannot guarantee that such requests will be approved.
- Please do not include any information in your application, comments or supporting documents which is not required for the planning process (see our guidance on submitting an application or comment for more information);
- In particular please refrain from sending us sensitive information such as health or medical details where these are not required;
- Please also refrain from including personal information about other people in your correspondence with us;
- When sending us comments or objections by email, we recommend that you include your comments in an attachment, so we can avoid publishing personal details such as your email address;
- We do not require a signature on any correspondence you send, and recommend that you do not include this so as to avoid the possibility of this being copied for possible use in identity theft.
Sharing information with other organisations
We are required by law and good practice to undertake consultations with internal departments and external organisations and neighbours, to obtain their views on planning applications and pre application advice. This involves sharing your submission details.
If an appeal is lodged against a decision we make, the Government’s Planning Inspectorate will ask for copies of all application correspondence, which may contain some personal information about applicants and third parties who have commented on the application.
We will share information related to proposed developments with the Council’s Building Control Service in order to provide comprehensive advice on the need for permissions relating to your development proposals. If you do not want us to share this information please make it clear at the time of submission.
Planning Enforcement complaints and correspondence are treat as confidential information and are not published.
We will not share your information with any other organisations unless required to do so by law.
