Transparency and data protection

Commenting on planning applications :

If you are submitting a comment on a current planning application this will be available to view on our website and may be inspected on request at our offices at Lymington Town Hall. We don’t acknowledge comments, but they will be published on our website within three working days of us receiving it, subject to being screened for any inappropriate content as described below. If an appeal is subsequently submitted, you will be notified and copies of the representations will be passed to the Planning Inspectorate. If you no longer wish to be involved in the matter, details of how to withdraw your comments will be provided to you.

Please make it clear whether your correspondence is in support of an application, an objection, or simply a comment, as we need to specify this against your correspondence on the website.

When commenting on an application you should confine your remarks to relevant planning matters and refrain from making personal assertions about National Park staff or any other interested parties. For guidance about what is a relevant planning consideration please refer to the Material Considerations section and guidance available at the following link Determining a planning application – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

You should only include information that you are happy to be published on our website and also made available to parties such as the Planning Inspectorate. Inappropriate or offensive material will not be published on our website, or will be subsequently removed from our website if it is brought to our attention.

We may redact (blank out) some information from representations, prior to publication, where it would not be appropriate for us to put the comments into the public domain, as noted below. If there are concerns regarding the contents of your submission then you may be asked to modify your comments and re-submit them before they are published or, if we consider that comments cannot be amended or redacted, they will not be accepted nor published on our website.

The name and address on any correspondence will be published, but we will take reasonable steps to remove personal (but not business) telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, and signatures, before publication. Planning applications have been edited in this way since January 2009, but other documents published before that may not have been.

We do not accept anonymous comments in either paper or electronic form. However, should you feel there is an exceptional circumstance that requires your name and address to be exempt from publication you can ask us to consider this request (please make this very clear in any correspondence).

Planning applications over 10 years old will only have the decision notice and related documents and plans published on our website.

The Planning Register

We recognise the importance of transparency to enable the public to fully participate in the planning process and so that our decisions may be scrutinised. We have a duty to maintain a public Planning Register which contains details of the planning applications that are being or have been determined.

The Planning Register includes the name of the applicant(s) and the application site address (which often will be the home address of the applicant) and also the names and addresses of those who submit comments, however we will take all reasonable steps to redact personal (but not business) telephone numbers, email addresses, and signatures before publication. Planning applications have been edited in this way since January 2009, but other documents published before that may not have been.

We will not publish information that contains special categories of personal data, as defined in the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), such as information relating to the health, ethnicity, religious beliefs etc. of identifiable individuals.

We will contact you to request your name and address if you do not provide it in the first instance.  However, if you choose not to give your postal address, your comment may still be uploaded to our website and taken into account when we determine the application, however it may be given less weight because we will not be able to determine how the application directly affects you or your property.

Anonymous comments are unlikely to be given significant weight when deciding an application or may be rejected in their entirety if we consider it is appropriate to do so. However, should you feel there is an exceptional circumstance that requires your name and address to be exempt from publication you can ask us to consider this request (please make this very clear in any correspondence).

At our offices

You can visit our offices to view public planning applications and ask for photocopies. Photographing  documents is not allowed.

If we make copies of documents for you, names and addresses will not be removed but the personal details as outlined above will be removed.

GDPR

We process personal data for planning purposes under Article 6(1)(e) of the GDPR – the processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller i.e. as the Local Planning Authority. Data subjects have the right to object to the processing of their data where it is being processed under Article 6(1)(e), however this is not an absolute right and any requests would be considered based on the particular circumstances.

Find out more

Find more information on how we use and protect your information, and about your information rights on our privacy and cookies page. Should you have further questions or would like further information on your rights and about the lawful basis of planning related processing (Article 6(1)(e) of the GDPR), please contact the Information and Data Protection Officer on 01590 646653 or email dpo@newforestnpa.gov.uk.