Payments privacy notice

1 Council Contact Details

1.1 West Northants Council
Registered Office:
One Angel Square
Angel Street
Northampton
NN1 1ED

www.westnorthants.gov.uk

2 Information that we hold

2.1 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 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)
Unique Identifier (i.e. NI number or similar)
Imagery (photographs & video footage
Land ownership details
Occupier details
Tenancy arrangements

3 How and why your information is collected and used

3.1 The personal information we process in relation to payments is provided to us directly by you, the bank account or cardholder. If a third party is using a card to make a payment transaction, permission will be sought from the cardholder before the information is processed.

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

You have requested a service from us.
You have entered into a contract with us.

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 are needed. We ensure that data 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 Income Processing staff have received training on data protection and information security.

3.3 We rely on the following lawful reasons to process your personal data in the Income Processing Service

UK GDPR Article 6 - Personal Identifiable Information (PII)
a. Consent has been provided by the data subject;
b. Processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the controller.

4 What we do with the information

4.1 We use the information that you have given us to process payment information via various payment methods. This could be via our online payment system, over the telephone automated or with a member of staff, or face to face with our staff.
We do not handle any of your payment card details ourselves but use authorised payment processing partners to do this securely on our behalf.

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 In order to deliver a range of Income Processing services, to undertake our statutory and non-statutory duties as a Local 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.

We may share some or all of this information with other council departments or third parties to recover debt, allocate payments to accounts or to provide a service.

The council has various card payment providers all of which adhere to the Payment Card Industry Security Standard.

Payments for some specific services are currently handled by North Northants Council as a shared service on behalf of West Northants Council under contract.

We may also share information with our auditors, central government or the police to protect.

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

4.3 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, behavior or choices.

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

4.5 The Income Processing service does not use automated processing or Artificial Intelligence in respect of your personal data.

E.g. Automated processing includes use of internal or external text generation tools to create case file notes and reports. Artificial Intelligence includes the use of software to complete tasks more usually undertaken by people.

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

5.1 We only keep information for as long as it is needed in line with the council’s retention schedule. This will differ according to the type of 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), a regulatory requirement 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 electronic systems, full card details/numbers are not retained by the council. Full card details and payment information is stored by our card payment processing suppliers for only as long as it is necessary.

Digital data is securely stored on the council’s computer network or on cloud severs in the UK, EEA and in countries with adequacy or that have a regulator approved Privacy Framework (such as the USA).

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 5 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 and will be updated or revised periodically in line with service changes and / or new legislation requirements.

This privacy notice was last updated July 2026

The update reference number is: PNS/26/067/D

Last updated 31 July 2026