Skip to main contentAccessibility Statement

Highways privacy notice

1. Council contact details

1.1. West Northamptonshire Council
Registered Office:
One Angel Square
Angel Street
Northampton
NN1 1ED
Tel: 0300 126 7000

The Data Controller is West Northamptonshire Council.

The Highways team can be contacted by email at [email protected].

2. Information that we hold

2.1. What personal information do we collect to deliver this service?

This privacy notice sets out the information for the Council’s Highways Service which covers:

  • Traffic management, including signals, signage, event permits, parking
  • Highways maintenance
  • Road safety
  • Highway Asset Management including management of rights of way, Traffic Regulation Orders, access rights and landowner deposits
  • Highway records search requests and CON29 enquiries of the local authority
  • Highways Development Projects and Major Highways Schemes
  • Highway adoptions, developments and strategies
  • Street Lighting
  • Parking, Permits and Bus Lane Enforcement service
  • Insurance claims
  • Complaints
  • Home to School Transport Service (see School Admissions Privacy Notice)

The personal and special category data we collect varies according to the purpose of the contact. Applications for our services are not restricted to people living or working in Northamptonshire. Anyone is entitled to contact the Council about our Highways Service. The information we hold may include:

  • Your name (including forename and surname)
  • Your address (including postcode)
  • Your telephone number(s)
  • Your email address
  • Payment details (card numbers etc.) which are held securely and encrypted in the Council’s Financial systems
  • Vehicle registration numbers
  • Further personal details such as gender and age (including date of birth), of anyone involved in a road accident on the public highway, which includes human injury or death (as recorded on a 'STATS19' report form used by police officers in Great Britain)
  • Site location information provided in your application for a highway service.
  • Unique Identifier (NI number or similar)
  • Imagery (photographs and video footage
  • Land ownership details
  • Occupier details
  • Tenancy arrangements

Where applicable Special Category data relating to:

  • Health data
  • Social Care data
  • Racial or ethnic origin
  • Political opinion
  • Religious belief
  • Trade Union membership
  • Health, disability and behavioural data
  • Social Care data
  • Sexual life
  • Sexual orientation
  • Commission or alleged commission of an offence
  • Proceedings for any offence committed or alleged
  • Any other criminal data

3. How the information is obtained

3.1. How do we collect this personal information?

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you in the following ways:

  • Face to Face
  • Reports
  • Application form
  • Telephone
  • Email or in writing

3.2. There are a number of reasons why we need to collect and use your personal information.

Much of what we do in Highways is governed by legislation, set nationally, which requires us to provide various services across the adopted highway in Northamptonshire. We process personal data to deliver public tasks outlined in the follow pieces of legislation:

  • Local Government Act 2000
  • Highways Act (HA)1980
  • Traffic Management Act 2004 (Parking Enforcement)
  • New Roads and Streetworks Act (NRSWA) 1991
  • Road Traffic Act 2016
  • Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984
  • Health And Safety at Work Act 1974 (HASAWA)
  • Town and Country Planning Act 1990
  • Freedom of information (FOI) act 2000
  • Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) 2004
  • Local Land Charges Act 1975
  • Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000
  • Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981
  • Commons Registration Act 1965
  • Commons Act 2006
  • Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013
  • Human Rights Act 1998
  • Equality Act 2010

We also provide statutory services in our role as the Commons Registration Authority which involve maintaining and revealing information contained in the Registers of Common Land and Town/Village Greens and processing applications to amend these records.

The information we collect, and store is also used to provide an auditable record of service delivery and enables us to contact people initiating reports/issues to request further information or provide updates.

Whenever we collect information, we always limit this to only the details that might be needed and we ensure that it is used, and stored, safely and securely. We require anyone we share information with, or who uses it on our behalf, to do so too. All Highways staff have received training on data protection and information security.

4. What we do with the information

4.1 How do we use this personal information?

We collect information about people who contact the Council to: report a highway maintenance or safety issue, apply for or are subjects of applications for a highway licence/permit including section 50 licenses, process parking fines, purchase a highways service, request highways, public rights of way, submit a CON29 enquiry of the local authority, apply to make a change to the List of Streets or Definitive Map and Statement, become involved in highways projects or programmes, enter into legal agreements, request information or comment on highways in general or as part of a consultation. The information we collect varies according to the purpose of the contact.

The information will only be used for the purposes stated when it was collected. Information will not be sold, rented or provided to anyone else, or used for any other purpose than that for which it was originally collected unless required to by law.

4.2. Who do we share your information with?

In order to deliver a range of highway services, to undertake our statutory and non-statutory duties as a Highway Authority and for us to deliver associated projects or programmes, it is often necessary for us to share information across the Council, with our Contractors or Agents, with Elected Councillors and Parish Councils and with other partner agencies and government departments such as the Police (in regard to road safety), the DVLA, Network Rail, North Northamptonshire Council, Highways England and other Authorities.

When we publish information in public, we will follow procedures that we have in place to remove personal data associated with the record wherever possible.

We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities, only if required by applicable law and in accordance with UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

We do not use automated decision making for this processing. Automated decision-making is where decisions are made about you without any human influence on the outcome. These may affect your legal rights or have an impact on your circumstances, behaviour or choices.

There is no profiling undertaken in relation to this processing. Profiling is where you analyse parts of an individual’s personality, behaviour, interests and habits to identify their preferences, make predictions or decisions about them.

5. How long we keep your information for and how we securely dispose of it after use

5.1. How long will your personal information be held?

We only keep information for as long as it is needed in line with the council’s retention schedule. This will differ according to what information we hold and its purpose. It will be based on either a legal requirement (where a law says we have to keep information for a specific period of time) or accepted business practice.

5.2 We will securely dispose of your information in line with the Council's Retention Schedules.

6. How we store your information

6.1. Your information is securely stored on the council’s systems, in which the servers are UK based.

7. Your data protection rights

7.1. The law gives you a number of rights to control what personal information is used by us and how we can use it. Please see section 15 of the council’s Privacy Policy for further information.

7.2. Please be aware that your rights may differ depending on the lawful basis for processing your personal data.

8. Who to contact

8.1. If you would like further information about how we use your personal information, or you wish to exercise one of your data rights or you wish to complain about the use of your personal information please contact the Data Protection Officer.

8.2. If you are still dissatisfied with how we have used your data once you have made a complaint through the council’s internal complaints procedure you have the right to complain to the ICO.

The ICO’s address:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

9 Changes to this privacy notice

9.1 Privacy notices are live documents, which will be updated or revised in line with legislation.

Last updated 06 July 2023