Council have published my home address against my planning objection

leafy211

My council have told me they have not breached any data protection rules by publishing my full address against my planning objection.  I didnt give them permission nor did i easily spot anything within the planning objection document which indicated they would publish my personal details.  They claim so long as they dont publish my phone number or email, they are acting lawfully.
Obviously the person I have lodged the objection against (who is a neighbour, who wants to turn their neighbouring field into a 10 month-per-year - 200 caravan site, which enters and exits directly onto the main road which is the only evacuation route away from the sea), might react to my objection .. what a nightmare!  Are the council allowed to publish my personal home address?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

It doesn't seem unusual

https://www.aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk/policy-publishing-personal-data

leafy211

I didnt spot anything on the objection portal of my council, about publishing my personal address.  I cant understand why that wouldnt be seen as sensitive information for which explicit permission should be sought. If a phone number and email address are excluded, how can home address not come under the same rule?  Transparency doesnt mean you dob someone in, or does it?  Or is the council hoping this will be enough to put people off from objecting in the first place ... 

user1977

Planning applications happen in the open, and although some councils do redact info from the online portals, I would think the applicant has a right to see full details of any representations made.

After all, if you're arguing that the proposal adversely affects your property, you can hardly expect to hide which property you're talking about, can you?

leafy211

in fact it doesnt adversely affect my property .. what it does adversely affect is the safety of people needing to escape from the coastal properties if there is an emergency.  And im not sure why someone needs my personal address when im raising an objection with the council and its for them to determine .. not some beefy bloke that put forward the application.

powerful_Rogue

Perfectly normal. I've objected/agreed before to various planning permissions and my address has always been shown.

mjm3346

A council planning site I have used had documents relating to planning applications available on line which included a document index  with addresses (for/against) and scanned copies of the documents.

leafy211

thanks everyone.  I just cant see how this isnt breaking GDPR law as its private information, the revealing of which could cause unwanted attention.  I believe in transparency, but its for the council to determine if an objection is valid, and they have access to my personal information, without needing to advertise it to the world.  Just because they have done it in the past, doesnt mean its correct to do in this day and age of GDPR protective laws.  They councillors dont show their personal details when they object to a proposal, so why does a non-member of staff have to?  Its very wrong.

user1977

leafy211 said:

I believe in transparency, but its for the council to determine if an objection is valid

Like I said, the applicant is also entitled to know about the objections and what may lie behind them. It's not very transparent if the information is secret and only known by council officers.

The councillors dont show their personal details when they object to a proposal, so why does a non-member of staff have to?

They would if they were making a representation in their personal capacities though. If they're making a representation in their capacity as a councillor, their contact details are via the council. What they cannot do is make anonymous objections.

In future if you have these sorts of concerns, maybe it would be best for you to check the facts first? I'm not sure what gave you the idea representations would be anonymous - surely you could have figured that out from looking at other applications?

shiraz99

leafy211 said:

thanks everyone.  I just cant see how this isnt breaking GDPR law as its private information, the revealing of which could cause unwanted attention.  I believe in transparency, but its for the council to determine if an objection is valid, and they have access to my personal information, without needing to advertise it to the world.  Just because they have done it in the past, doesnt mean its correct to do in this day and age of GDPR protective laws.  They councillors dont show their personal details when they object to a proposal, so why does a non-member of staff have to?  Its very wrong.

It's not private information though, the planning process is a public thing and by objecting you're taking part in that public process. All parties involved have a right to know who's raising objections or not.

Elisheba

Your Council will have a Privacy Policy somewhere on its website.  Generally only phone numbers, email addresses and signatures are redacted.