Planning and Environment

To comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), where personal data relating to a data subject is collected, Lancashire County Council would like to provide you with the following details.

Contact details of this Lancashire County Council service:

Note that for queries intended for this specific service, do not contact the Data Protection Officer (DPO) mailbox. Instead, please direct your query to the following point of contact:

GBSgeneral@lancashire.gov.uk

Reasons for processing your personal data

Lancashire County Council processes personal data to support the planning, delivery and management of planning, transport, environmental and climate‑related functions carried out in the public interest. This includes, where relevant:

Engaging with residents, communities and stakeholders through consultations, surveys, mapping tools and events to help shape planning, transport, environmental and climate initiatives.
Planning, delivering and managing public infrastructure projects, including the rollout, operation and evaluation of electric vehicle charging infrastructure to support the transition to low‑carbon transport.
Assessing suitability, feasibility and prioritisation of sites and schemes, and coordinating installations, inspections and associated works.
Communicating with individuals about proposals, applications, installation activity, service updates, issues and feedback.
Monitoring, evaluating and improving services and infrastructure, including analysing usage and performance data (in aggregated or anonymised form where possible) to ensure value for money and effective delivery.
Maintaining appropriate records, evidence and audit trails to meet statutory duties, public accountability requirements and long‑term strategic planning needs.
Supporting fairness, accessibility and inclusivity by considering relevant circumstances or needs that individuals voluntarily provide when accessing or engaging with council services.

Personal data is processed only where necessary, proportionate to the purpose, and in line with the council’s statutory duties, primarily relying on the public task lawful basis.

Use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies

We are increasingly utilising AI technologies to process your personal data. This is primarily utilised within Lancashire County Council using Microsoft Copilot Web and Microsoft Copilot 365. Please consult our Artificial Intelligence privacy notice for more details of how we use these specific platforms.

We do not use AI to make automated decisions. There is always a human intervention to review and approve any outputs from the AI tools. Decisions are not made solely by automated means.

Within the Planning and Environment service, AI tools such as Microsoft Copilot may be used for drafting and reviewing reports, summarising consultation responses, analysing survey or engagement data, preparing correspondence, and supporting project management and service delivery activities. Any personal data processed using these tools is handled in accordance with the council’s data protection policies and security controls.

Legal basis for processing personal data

Lancashire County Council processes personal data primarily under UK GDPR Article 6(1)(e) – Public task, where processing is necessary for the performance of tasks carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority as a local authority.

This includes planning, highways, transport, environmental protection, countryside and climate‑related functions, supported by legislation such as the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, Highways Act 1980, Transport Act 2000, Environment Act 2021, and related environmental and countryside legislation.

Where processing is required to meet a specific statutory requirement, the council may also rely on UK GDPR Article 6(1)(c) – Legal obligation.

Legal basis for processing special categories of personal data

Lancashire County Council does not routinely process special category personal data. Where individuals voluntarily provide information relating to health, disability or accessibility needs, this is processed under UK GDPR Article 9(2)(g) – substantial public interest, supported by Schedule 1, Part 2, paragraph 16 of the Data Protection Act 2018, to ensure services and infrastructure are delivered fairly, safely and accessibly, in line with the council’s public sector duties under the Equality Act 2010.

Information we process about you

Depending on how you engage with the Planning and Environment service, Lancashire County Council may process the following types of personal data:

Basic identification and contact details such as name, address, email address and telephone number.
Consultation, application and correspondence information, including comments, representations, objections and feedback provided in relation to planning, transport, environmental, countryside or climate‑related matters.
Land and property‑related information, such as land ownership details, site locations or interests in land where relevant to planning, public rights of way or environmental records.
Transport and infrastructure information, including survey responses, vehicle information or location‑based data gathered for transport planning and infrastructure delivery.
Volunteer and engagement records for countryside, environmental or community programmes.
Payment or financial information, where required for fees, grants or reimbursements.
Limited special category information, such as health or disability details, only where voluntarily provided and necessary to ensure services or infrastructure are accessible and delivered safely and fairly.

We only process personal data that is relevant, necessary and proportionate to the specific Planning and Environment function you are involved in.

Recipients of the personal data that we process about you

Depending on the Planning and Environment service you are involved with, personal data may be shared with the following recipients where necessary and lawful:

Lancashire County Council staff who need access to the information to carry out their roles within planning, highways, transport, environment, countryside and climate services.
The public, where information is required to be published by law, such as planning applications, representations, public rights of way matters or statutory registers.
Applicants, landowners or complainants, where necessary as part of consultation, decision‑making, appeals or enforcement processes.
Other public bodies and regulators, including the Planning Inspectorate, government departments, statutory consultees and partner local authorities.
Partner organisations and contractors, such as consultants, survey providers, infrastructure delivery partners or chargepoint operators, who provide services on behalf of the council under contractual data protection controls.
Environmental, transport and countryside partnerships, where information sharing is necessary to support joint working and public interest objectives.

Personal data is only shared where there is a lawful basis to do so, and appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your information.

Any transfers to another country

In most cases, Lancashire County Council processes personal data within the UK.
In limited circumstances, some personal data (such as transport survey footage or pseudonymised technical data) may be processed by approved suppliers based outside the UK, including Canada, to support specific transport or infrastructure services.

Where international transfers occur, appropriate safeguards are in place in line with UK GDPR requirements to ensure your personal data remains protected.

Retention periods

Lancashire County Council will only store your information for as long as is legally required or in situations where there is no legal retention period they will follow established best practice.

File type	Description	Security	Retention period
General email enquiries	Includes names, contact details and correspondence relating to planning, transport or environmental enquiries.	Restricted access; secure council systems.	Deleted 1 year from date received.
Planning applications	Applicant details, representations, supporting documents and decision records.	Restricted access; password-protected systems; public register where required.	Core planning records retained permanently; other material deleted in line with statutory planning requirements.
Planning enforcement and complaints	Complainant details and investigation records.	Restricted access to authorised officers.	Deleted 1 year after the case is resolved.
Consultation responses and engagement records	Responses to planning, transport, environmental and climate consultations.	Password-protected systems; limited staff access.	Held for the duration of the project plus 12 months; summary findings retained permanently.
Public rights of way records	Reports, objections and correspondence relating to rights of way.	Restricted access to authorised users.	Retained while the right of way exists; then securely deleted.
Landowner declarations and deposits	Landowner name, address and land details submitted for statutory purposes.	Restricted access; statutory registers where required.	Retained permanently for statutory reasons.
Historic environment and ecological records	Records of heritage assets, ecological sites and related enquiries.	Restricted access; secure systems.	Retained while the site is designated or listed.
Transport surveys	Video footage, vehicle information and pseudonymised technical data.	Restricted access; contracted provider controls.	Reviewed after 2 years; provider deletes after 1 year.
Volunteer records	Contact details and participation records for countryside or environmental volunteers.	Password-protected systems; restricted access.	Held for the duration of the volunteer’s involvement.

Your rights

You have certain rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), these are those rights:

to be informed via Privacy Notices such as this.
to withdraw your consent. If we are relying on your consent to process your data, then you can remove this at any point.
of access to any personal information the council holds about yourself. To request a copy of this information you must make a subject access request in writing. You are entitled to receive a copy of your personal data within 1 calendar month of our receipt of your subject access request. If your request is complex then we can extend this period by a further two months, if we need to do this, we will contact you. You can request a subject access request, either via a letter or via an email to Information Governance Team, address below.
of rectification, we must correct inaccurate or incomplete data within one month.
to erasure. You have the right to have your personal data erased and to prevent processing unless we have a legal obligation to process your personal information.
to restrict processing. You have the right to suppress processing. We can retain just enough information about you to ensure that the restriction is respected in future.
to data portability. We can provide you with your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine readable form when asked.
to object. You can object to your personal data being used for profiling, direct marketing or research purposes.
in relation to automated decision making and profiling, to reduce the risk that a potentially damaging decision is taken without human intervention.

If you want to exercise any of these rights, then you can do so by contacting:

Information Governance Team
Lancashire County Council
PO Box 78
County Hall
Preston
PR1 8XJ

Email: dpo@lancashire.gov.uk

To ensure that we can deal with your request as efficiently as possible you will need to include your current name and address, proof of identity (a copy of your driving licence, passport or two different utility bills that display your name and address), as much detail as possible regarding your request so that we can identify any information we may hold about you, this may include your previous name and address, date of birth and what council service you were involved with.

Identity and contact details of the data controller

Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78 County Hall, Fishergate, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 8XJ

Contact details of the data protection officer

Our Data Protection Officer is Joanne Winston. You can contact her at dpo@lancashire.gov.uk or Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78 County Hall, Fishergate, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 8XJ

Further information

For more information about how we use personal information see Lancashire County Council's full privacy notice.

If you wish to raise a complaint on how we have handled your personal data, you can contact the Information Governance team who will investigate the matter.

Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78 County Hall, Fishergate, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 8XJ or email: dataprotection@lancashire.gov.uk

If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your personal data not in accordance with the law you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).