Allotment privacy notice

Trafford Council is committed to ensuring that we are transparent about the ways in which we use your personal information and that we have the right controls in place to ensure it is used responsibly and is kept safe from inappropriate access, theft or misuse.

This privacy notice is designed to help you understand how we use personal information when delivering our allotment letting processes, and specifically the data we need to formalise your tenancy agreement with us. We have set out the services types, the information we may use to deliver the services, who we may share it with, and how long we will keep it.

This privacy notice supports Trafford Council’s primary privacy notice. 

Services covered within this privacy notice:

  • Allotment Service: Provides management and development of allotments.

Categories of personal data

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.

We will use some or all of the personal information provided such as:

  • your name, address and date of birth.
  • contact details, such as email address, mobile phone number etc.

Purposes

To comply with our public and statutory functions to provide an allotment service. We use your contact details to notify you of available allotments and to arrange plot viewings. If you choose to take on a plot, your information is used to draw up a tenancy agreement. We then use your information for contractual and billing purposes, as well as for communications relating to the allotment service.

Specifically, we use your information to:

  • enter into, and fulfil a Tenancy Agreement
  • deliver the service
  • maintain and administer the allotment database
  • contact you in the event of a problem with your tenancy/plot
  • send out renewal information
  • enable us to meet all legal and statutory obligations
  • notify you of changes e.g. repairs and maintenance
  • chase up outstanding payments

Information sharing/recipients

Information will be shared with relevant Allotment Society volunteers specific to the Allotment you have tenancy on, as they assist in the running of our sites, including arranging plot-viewings for prospective tenants; inspecting plots; issuing notices.

Your information may be shared with other external government and enforcement agencies, for example Highway Services or the Environment Agency, if we need to report flooding or other issues at an allotment site.

Exceptionally, we may need to share information about you with the law enforcement agencies such as the police if we need to report theft, criminal damage or if we suspect that an allotment is used for unlawful purposes.

Legal basis for processing

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you, under the Data Protection Act 2018, the lawful bases we rely on for using your personal information is:

  • Article 6(1)(b) UK GDPR - We have a contractual obligation (Tenancy Agreement) with you.
  • Article 6(1)(e) UK GDPR- Where it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of local authority functions under the Allotment Act 1908 as modified under the Allotment Act 1950
  • Article 6(1)(d) UK GDPR - In an emergency situation where it is necessary to protect the vital interests of any individual.

The Data Controller

We are the Data Controller for this processing.

Protecting your information

Your information will be securely stored on our database. 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.

How long we will 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 as long as you are a tenant, plus two years then destroyed. Your personal information would only be retained for longer than this in the event of tenancy determinations.

Rights of individuals

If you do not supply your personal details, we will be unable to enter into a contract with you for an allotment tenancy.

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 erasure - you have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances
  • 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 data portability - you have the right to ask that we transfer the information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, 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.

Your right to withdraw consent

Not applicable. If you do not maintain consent, we will be unable to deliver a contract with you for an allotment tenancy.

Complaints

You can complain directly to our Data Protection team using the following details:

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office using the following details: 

  • Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) website
  • By post: The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
  • Telephone: 0303 123 1113

Updates (notice)

We may update or revise this Privacy Notice at any time so refer back to this page for the most up-to-date version.