Privacy notice tree preservation orders

We collect the following:

• your name, address and contact details
• any information you have included as part of your request for the making of an order or your comment on the order including any supporting documentation such as reports or photographs

The Town and Country Planning (Trees) Regulations 2012 requires that we shall not confirm a Tree Preservation Order without taking into account any comments or objections made about the order.

We may share your personal information with/on:

• the joint planning and building control data base and document management system which may be accessed by staff working in these departments and staff in other departments who work on behalf of planning such as our contact centre who deal with planning related enquiries
• on our website as Tree Preservation Orders must be made publically available for viewing and your request/comments form part of the making of the order. We will aim to redact your personal information such as your telephone number, email and signature. We strongly advise you not to include information of a personal nature such as medical / financial details within your request /comment but if included we will aim to redact it
• local land charges as they are legally required to reveal Tree Preservation Orders in local searches under the Local Land Charges Act 1975 and Rules 1977
• third parties, contractors or consultants if we outsource work to them. If this is done they will have access to your request/comments but they are obliged to comply with our data protection policies and will not be able to use your information for any other purpose than processing the work on our behalf .They will not use or pass on your information for any other purpose
• the High Court,if there is a challenge to the making of the Tree Preservation Order, all evidence relating to the making of the order may be considered by the court

In addition, if we receive a request, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) or Environmental Information Regulations (EIR), to disclose information, we are obliged to do so unless the information is deemed exempt under the act. We can only withhold information under FOI or EIR if the information falls under one of the exemptions (FOI) or exceptions (EIR) set out in legislation.

Your information is used to help us to decide whether to make a Tree Preservation Order and a summary of your comments will be included in the case officer’s report should a report be needed. Your original request/comment will be retained as this forms background evidence in the making of the order.

You will be advised of the outcome of the process and informed if the order is modified, confirmed or withdrawn.

Your original request/comments as well as a summarised version as contained in the report, if appropriate, will be retained as part of the history of the order and will form part of the overall planning history.

All information submitted as part of making the Tree Preservation Order is kept indefinitely as it forms part of the planning history relating to a property or piece of land. The Tree Preservation Order needs to be kept available to the public and needs to be revealed as part of the local land charges.

You do have some legal rights in respect of the personal information we collect from you. Please see our Privacy policy page for further details.

If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, you should raise your concern with us in the first instance or directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office at: https://ico.org.uk/concerns/.

You can also contact our Data Protection Officer by email at data.protection@arun.gov.uk.