Privacy notice - Rights of Way and Countryside
Overview
This privacy notice covers work carried out by the Rights of Way and Countryside Teams.
We manage over 2,000 miles of public path and ten countryside sites. If you have an enquiry or a request in relation to our paths or sites, we have to:
- assess your enquiry or request
- work out the most appropriate course of action
To do this, we need to hold your contact details and information about the nature of your enquiry or request. This is in case we need to seek further detail from you, or to provide an update following your initial enquiry.
East Sussex County Council takes data protection seriously. Please be assured that your information will be used appropriately in line with data protection legislation, will be stored securely and will not be processed unless the requirements for fair and lawful processing can be met.
What information is being used?
In order to provide our service, we need to hold your contact details (for example, phone number, address or email address.) This is in case we need to seek further detail from you, or to provide an update following your initial enquiry. We will also hold details about the nature of your enquiry or request.
How will your information be used?
We hold your information so that we can provide services that you need and keep in touch with you. We also use it to plan and improve our services and to look into any concerns you may have about the services you receive. We need to do this either because we have statutory duties to fulfil, or because we are required to undertake certain tasks for reasons of public interest.
If you use our online reporting system, your details will be used to process reports and keep you updated.
We aim to maintain high standards, adopt best practice for our record keeping and regularly check and report on how we are doing. Your information is never sold for direct marketing purposes.
Our staff are trained to handle your information correctly and protect your confidentiality and privacy.
Your information is processed in the UK or in a country with an adequacy agreement with the UK.
What is the legal basis for processing your information?
Usually, we collect and hold your information to enable us to comply with a legal obligation or because we are acting in the public interest or exercising our official authority. For example, we have a duty, under the Highways Act 1980 to protect and maintain public paths. We also have various duties under the Wildlife and Countryside Act to keep map records up to date and manage countryside sites. We therefore have to collect and process personal data to enable us to comply with this obligation.
If we are entering into a contract with you it will be necessary for us to process your data for this purpose.
If we decide we need your consent to process your data we will contact you separately about this.
If you use our online reporting system, consent to hold your details will be obtained during the registration process. You can delete your account at any time.
If we believe there is another legal basis for processing your personal data we will advise you of this at the time we collect the data from you.
How long will your information be kept for?
All information processed by the Rights of Way and Countryside Team is subject to a retention policy which details how long we will retain the information. This is governed by the category of data and the requirement to hold it in our records in line with statutory provisions or other operational requirements.
Personal details stored on our online reporting system will be removed after 3 years if the account has not been used. Reports are kept indefinitely.
Sharing your information
We may share your information with other local authorities or organisations who are also involved in the management of rights of way and countryside sites. For example, a district council, who may be responsible for collecting litter.
Any sharing of personal data is always done:
- on case-by-case basis
- using the minimum personal data necessary
- with the appropriate security controls in place
- in line with legislation.
Information is only shared with those agencies and bodies who have a "need to know" or where you have consented to the sharing of your personal data to such persons.
We may use the information we hold about you to assist in the detection and prevention of crime or fraud. We may also share this information with other bodies that inspect and manage public funds.
Use of third party organisations
East Sussex County Council may share your information with trusted external organisations to process your data on our behalf.
Content owner: Mary Wise
Web author Mary Wise
Any organisation commissioned by the Council will be under contractual obligation to comply with data protection legislation.
Your rights
Under data protection legislation, you have the right:
- to be informed why, where and how we use your information
- to ask for access to your information
- to ask for your information to be corrected if it is inaccurate or incomplete
- to ask for your information to be deleted or removed where there is no need for us to continue processing it
- to ask us to restrict the use of your information
- to ask us to copy or transfer your information from one IT system to another in a safe and secure way, without impacting the quality of the information
- to object to how your information is used
- to challenge any decisions made without human intervention (automated decision making)
Please visit data subject rights for further details.
How to find out more or complain
Should you have any further queries on the uses of your information, please speak directly to our service:
For Rights of Way enquiries, please email Rights of Way Team
For Countryside Site enquiries, please email Countryside Management
Alternatively, please call 0345 60 80 193 or write to:
Rights of Way & Countryside Team
East Sussex County Council
County Hall (West B)
St Anne’s Crescent
Lewes BN7 1UE
To complain about the use of your information, please contact our Customer Services Team or our Data Protection Officer.
Further information on making a complaint.
You can also contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for further information or to make a complaint:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF
Phone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate)