Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy tells you what to expect when South Norfolk Council collects your personal data.

1. Who we are?

South Norfolk Council is a registered district council whose office is based at:

The Horizon Centre
Broadland Business Park
Peachman Way
Norwich
NR7 0WF

2. About Data Protection Legislation

South Norfolk Council complies with relevant ‘data protection legislation’. Data Protection Legislation means the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and any national implementing laws and secondary legislation, as amended or updated from time to time, in the UK, and any other successor legislation and all other applicable data protection law. Data Protection Legislation also includes the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations.

3. Why We Collect Information

South Norfolk Council processes information to enable us to provide a range of goods and services. We lawfully process this information in line with Data Protection Legislation.

Examples of information collected by us include, but are not limited to, details of:

- Visitors to our website

- People who contact us by email or phone

- Leisure service customers

- People who use e-billing to pay for council tax and their brown bin

- Individuals who submit planning consultation statements

- Housing applicants’ details

- Job Applicants and our current and former employees

- Individuals who complete Council surveys.

- People who receive information, news and offers about new and updated Council services

We do not pass on your details to any third parties unless at least one of the below criteria applies:

- You give us permission

- The Council is legally obliged to do so

- It is for the prevention or detection of crime

- It is for the prevention of fraud

4. Visitors to our website

4.1 What information do we collect?

We will only collect relevant personal information from you. Furthermore, when we collect this data we will detail how long we will retain this data for or the criteria used to make this decision.

We collect information from visitors to the South Norfolk Council website in four main ways, these are:

1. Requests for information or services via email

1. Customers creating an account on the Customer Portal

1. Requests for information via online forms

1. Feedback via an online form.

The information we collect for your customer portal account will be used for administering your account and pre-populating forms, it may also be passed onto other council services to update our systems, but we will not share your data with third parties.

We will keep your account data for as long as your account remains active, however you have the right to delete your account at any time. To do so, please complete our General Enquiry Form and select ‘My Account’. If you do not access your account for 12 months then you will be sent a reminder, if your account remains inactive for another month then your account and personal data will be deleted.

4.2 Cookies

Some features on our websites will not function if you do not allow cookies.

Cookies are small text files stored in your browser by most websites to help remember choices you have made, personalise your web experience or provide anonymous statistics that enable website improvement. For example; if you complete an online website survey, it will send a cookie to your computer so that it will not invite you to complete it again on your next visit.

To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set on your device, and how to manage and delete them, visit the ICO’s website on cookies.

Please be aware that if you disable cookies this will have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites, and may prevent you from accessing services available on this website. We do not share cookies with any third party.

Under Data Protection Legislation where a unique identifier, internet protocol address, cookie identifier or other online identifier leaves traces of information, when combined with unique identifiers and other information received by the servers to identity a natural person this is defined as Personal Data. We will lawfully process this Personal Data seeking your consent whereby you can opt out of non-essential cookies.

On first visit the cookie preference management solution will ask you to confirm consent showing essential and non-essential cookies. If you confirm acceptance of these cookies, these will then be saved and available via a link which will always be visible on the page. This will allow you to change your preferences at any time.

For a list of the cookies we will potentially use please scroll to the bottom of the page.

4.3 Online payments

South Norfolk Council is serious about guarding the security of your personal data and the details of any transactions you make, and uses leading technologies and encryption software to safeguard your data. We use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology, a standard supported by major internet browsers. All of your personal and payment card details are protected using strong encryption when transmitted over the internet.

Our online credit and debit card processing for Council Tax and Green Bins is undertaken by Capita. We do not hold any credit or debit card information that you enter on their secure online payments system.

4.4 e-billing

If you sign up to e-billing, you are agreeing to South Norfolk Council using your email address to provide your council tax, garden waste and any future Council bills electronically. To ensure that you receive bills electronically, you accept that it is your responsibility to tell us if your email address changes and supply us with your new email address – you can do this by updating your details on our customer portal or by emailing council@southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk or calling us on 0808 178 7141 for council tax or on 0808 178 7142 for business rates.

4.5 Planning

4.5.1 Planning Applicants

Under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (and relevant secondary legislation including The Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015) South Norfolk Council are required to ensure that a local planning register is made available for public inspection. This register will include:

- A copy of every application for planning permission together with accompanying plans and drawing

- The Reference Number

- A copy of the decision.

The register is available to view at the Council offices and also on the Council’s website. This information will be kept indefinitely.

The planning application will include the following information:

- Applicant’s Name and address

- Details of the proposal

- Location of the land to which the Planning Application relates

- Application Date

Agent’s details completed on planning forms will be taken as being provided in their capacity as a business and will therefore be published as part of the planning file.

4.5.2 Comments on Planning Applications

If you make a comment to the Council, this comment, along with your name and address, will be made available on our website. Additional pieces of personal information will be redacted so that it cannot be seen. Unfortunately, we are unable to take anonymous views into consideration.

If you submit your written views to a District Councillor this will ordinarily be classed as ‘lobbying’ and the District Councillor will therefore be obliged to pass these on to the planning officer, and they will then be published on the Council website.

If you submit a comment on behalf of a group the name and address supplied will be used and published on our website.

Planning law prescribes that consultation must take place between South Norfolk Council, as a local planning authority, and certain prescribed organisations (‘Statutory Consultees’). Where we collect data from Statutory Consultees the information will ordinarily be published within the Planning file.

Decision Notices will be available on our website.

Comments will be deleted from the Planning file and the Council’s website ten years from the date of the Decision.

4.5.3 Written Decision Notices of Planning Applications

Decision notices will be published on our website and within the weekly list of planning applications/Decisions. The personal data required at 4.5.1 will be listed here in line with The Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015. This information will be retained indefinitely.

4.5.4 Comments on Footpath Diversions

If you make a comment to the Council, your details will not be published on our website, however if requested, we will share your name and postal address, along with your comments, with the applicant and any interested parties. Additional pieces of personal information will be redacted and not shared. Make sure that your comments are relevant and not defamatory or offensive, because you remain personally and legally responsible for them.

Personal data will be retained for 10 years as part of the lawful processing of the Diversion Order.

4.6 Up to Date News

The customer portal allows you to create an account where you can update and amend your details, or choose how we contact you.

You can select via the customer portal or via webforms if you would like to hear from us by Email or Text Message. You can also select any of the following categories if you would like to receive up to date news:

- News & Upcoming Events (Latest news from across the Council and events)

- Business (Latest news for national and local businesses)

- Health & Community (Latest news on health services, leisure centres and local community Groups)

- Environment & Recycling (Latest news and updates on recycling and environmental issues)

4.6.1 How do I update my preferences or unsubscribed?

If you provide additional contact details within your preferences, we will subsequently use this data to administer your accounts with the Council and to provide any services and products details which you have selected.

Emails – You can update your preferences at any time by clicking on the ‘update your preferences and unsubscribe’ button at the bottom of emails we send you relating to information, news and offers or by altering your selection on the customer portal. This will immediately remove you from our email mailing list.

SMS – You can unsubscribe from text messages by texting ‘STOP’ back to the number which you received the message from. This will immediately remove you from our SMS mailing list.

4.7 Invest in Greater Norwich website

Invest Greater Norwich is a joint venture between South Norfolk Council & Broadland District Council to promote inward investment and attract national and international businesses to invest in both South Norfolk and Broadland as part of Greater Norwich.

References to “Invest in Greater Norwich” and “we” in 4.7.1 and 4.7.2 refer to both South Norfolk Council and Broadland District Council. As such, South Norfolk Council and Broadland District Council are joint Data Controllers in respect of personal data gathered through the Invest in Greater Norwich website.

4.7.1 email capture

We take your privacy very seriously. Under data protection legislation we lawfully process your personal information with your consent.

The Invest in Greater Norwich website allows you to download information related to key sectors and key site information in both South Norfolk and Broadland for which you must enter your full name and email address. We will retain your personal data collected by completing the download form for administration purposes only and will delete your details within one week of receipt. We will ensure we gain your consent for any additional communication.

4.7.2 Further contact

You can consent to receive a one-off follow up email from the Invest in Greater Norwich team. If you consent to this, we will contact you after you have downloaded the information from the website to see if we can help with further information. We will retain this data for one year from receipt of your consent/download. You can opt-out or unsubscribe from being contacted by email return to the team or contact@investgn.co.uk

4.8 Recycling

The Council monitors the contents of bins if it is identified that there is a contamination issue or it is found that the wrong items are being placed in the bin. Letters are subsequently sent to householders advising of the issue, along with reminders of what can and cannot be placed in certain bins. If there are any issues with bins and/or their contents we may share this information with the relevant housing association or landlord.

The location and contents of fly tips will also be recorded.

Your personal data in relation to this will be held securely for seven years.

4.9 Photographs of people on our website

Before we use photographs where people can be individually identified we ask them to sign a form giving us permission to use it. If it is a photo of anyone under 18 we will get permission from the parent or guardian. We specifically ask for permission to use a photo in promotional publications or videos, in press releases, and on this website. When we ask for permission to use this photograph we will:

- Tell you what we are doing with your personal data

- Explain to you what to do if you have any questions or are unhappy about our usage of the data

- Be clear with you about the safeguards in place to protect your data

We will not publish a photo of anyone on this website unless consent has first been given. The permission is granted for the photo to be used on our website only – we have copyright of the photograph and it must not be copied or used in any way without our permission.

4.10 Links to other websites

The Council website contains links to other websites, but this privacy policy only applies to our site. You should always take care when you are moving to another site and read the privacy statements of sites which collect personal information. South Norfolk Council accepts no responsibility or liability for external sites.

4.11 Keeping your data secure

Sending information over the internet is generally not completely secure, and we can’t guarantee the security of your data whilst it is in transit.

We do however have procedures and security features in place to keep your data secure once we receive it.

4.12 Geo-Location Information

When you use certain features of some South Norfolk Council applications, including Wym Trails, we may collect information about your precise or approximate location as determined through data such as your IP address or mobile device’s GPS to offer you an improved user experience. Mobile devices should ordinarily allow you to control or disable the use of location services for applications in the device’s settings menu.

5. Your Rights

Under the General Data Protection Regulation, you have a right to request the following in regards to your personal data:

- To access the information which we hold about you.

- To withdraw your consent

- To restrict processing

- To rectification of personal data where there is an error

- To erase your details from our systems

- To port your data to another organisation

- To object to the processing

These rights are not absolute, and in some circumstances, these rights may not apply or there may be an exception to one of these rights. We will clearly explain to you if one of these legal exceptions or exemptions applies.

If you would like to request any of the above or have any other questions or concerns about how we collect, store and otherwise process data please contact South Norfolk Council’s Data Protection Officer at: Data.protection@southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk

South Norfolk Council’s Data Protection Policy provides further information on these rights. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (the ICO):

T) 0303 123 1113

W) https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

6. Data Controller and Data Regulator

Under Data Protection Legislation South Norfolk Council is a Data Controller, when it makes decisions about the data we process and how this will be processed.

However, in some circumstances, we may use a third party to process our information, who will often be defined under Data Protection Legislation as a Data Processor. An example is where we contract a third party to supply us with system software.

We will always ensure that third parties agree to comply with all relevant Data Protection Legislation and with South Norfolk Council’s policies.

Data Controllers are regulated by the Information Commissioner’s Office who can be contacted at:

(w) https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

7. Changes to this Privacy Policy

This Policy was updated in March 2018 and was reviewed in March 2020. It will continue to be reviewed every two years, or sooner if there are any changes to Data Protection Legislation or relevant Council policies.