Privacy notice for public rights of way

Property is a service of West Suffolk Council. This privacy notice explains how we use any personal information we ask you for when making an application, consultation or reporting a concern about a Public Right of Way (PRoW).

What information do you collect about me?

We are collecting your personal information as we require it in order to assess and process your application, consultation or concern.

Why do you collect this personal information and how do you use it?

We take your data under the Highways Act 1980 or the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 as applicable. Your data will not be shared with third parties unless used for council purposes (that is, to progress your application, consultation or concern – for example, West Suffolk Council has an agreement with Mid Suffolk District Council to carry out the specialist work involved in processing an application to change a public right of way), to prevent or detect crime, to protect public funds or where we are required or permitted to share data under other legislation.

Your data used for this purpose will be retained indefinitely by West Suffolk Council. The reason for this retention period is because councils are the only organisations to hold this data about public path orders and, therefore, it is considered to be of historical importance for use in the future if discrepancies arise or for research purposes.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Any personal information we capture about you is processed under the terms of GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2019 and the council’s Data Protection Policy. For more information visit: How we use your information

Can I access the information you hold about me?

Under GDPR, you can ask for access to information we hold about you. This is called a data subject access request; you will need to request this information in writing. To help you in this process, please complete the online Data Subject Access Request form. You will be required to provide proof of identity in person. We must respond to you within one month – if we feel the request is complex we may ask for an extension of this period.

If the information we provide is incorrect, you must write to us and tell us what information is incorrect and ask that it be corrected. If we do not agree that the information is incorrect, you may ask us to record your disagreement – more information on your rights under GDPR can be found at: Data Protection Policy

If you wish to complain about the way in which your request has been processed then your complaint will be dealt with as a Step Two complaint in accordance with our complaints procedure

If, after an internal review, you are still unhappy with the decision, you have a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner, visit their page: Information Commissioner, report a concern

How can I contact you?

Please contact us if you have any questions about this privacy notice or information we hold about you by emailing: data.protection@westsuffolk.gov.uk or write to us at: Data Protection, West Suffolk House, Western Way, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP33 3YU.