Tree survey privacy notice
Who is the Data Controller for this processing?
We are the Data Controller for this processing.
The personal information we have collected from you will be shared with fraud prevention agencies who will use it to prevent fraud and money-laundering and to verify your identity. If fraud is detected, you could be refused certain services, finance, or employment.
What services are covered by this privacy notice?
Tree Asset and Risk Management System
The owner of trees, owes a common law duty to take reasonable care to avoid acts which would be likely to injure anyone using the public highway, public rights of way, public open spaces etc.
The system will record the location, type, size and condition of all private trees that are close to the highway or land used by the public.
We may notify you that your tree is likely to cause harm to the public and will ask that you undertake necessary works to remove the possible obstruction or risk before action is taken by the authority.
No personal details will be kept on the system, only addresses of where private trees are located.
What personal information do we hold?
We only collect and use the minimum amount of personal information required when delivering a service to you. Wherever possible we use non-identifiable personal information.
The service may use some or all of the personal information provided:
- your name, address, and contact details either e mail or phone number
- visual images of your tree and surrounding background
We get most of this information from you, but we may also get some of this data from central Government agencies (land registry information).
How do we use your personal information?
We use your information to advise you that a tree under your ownership is likely to cause harm to members of the public.
Who else might we share your personal information with?
We do not share your information.
What is the legal basis for our use of your personal information?
Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you, under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for using your personal information are:
- we need it to perform a public task (GDPR Article 6 (e)
The legislation we rely on when using your personal information to meet our legal obligations or public tasks includes but is not limited to:
- Section 154 Highways Act 1980.
Where will we store your information?
Your information will be securely stored on our network.
How long will we keep your personal information?
We will only use your personal information whilst delivering the service to you and to deal with any questions or complaints that we may receive about this, unless the law requires us to keep it for a longer period. In practice, this means that your information will be kept for a period of six months or when the risk is addressed by the private tree owner.
If we need to use your information for research or reports, your information will be anonymised and any information taken from notes (hand written or typed) during any consultation sessions will be securely destroyed. The information will continue to be used in a summarised and anonymised form in any research reports or papers that are published. The anonymised information in the papers may be of historic interest and may be held in public archives indefinitely.
Your rights
Under data protection law, you have rights including:
- your right of access - you have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information
- your right to rectification - you have the right to ask us to rectify information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.
- your right to restriction of processing - you have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your information in certain circumstances
- your right to object to processing - you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances
You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.
To make a request follow the instructions on our Data protection for you page.
How to complain if you are unhappy about how your data is used
You can complain directly to our Data Protection team online or by post.
- Online: Contact the DPO
- By post: Data Protection Officer, The Portal, Wellington Road, Ellesmere Port, CH65 0BA
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office using the following details:
- By post: The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
- Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Will my personal information be accessible outside the UK?
Should the transfer of personal information outside of the UK become necessary, it will only take place if permitted by law, and then only where there are appropriate safeguards in place to protect the personal information.
Your information is stored within the UK.