Save the Deveron Valley Privacy Policy

For SaveTheDeveron.org, the community survey, campaign email, Facebook page, and future campaign updates

Effective date: 10 June 2026 | Version: Working public version 1.1

Working note: This is a practical community-campaign privacy policy, not solicitor-reviewed legal advice. It should be reviewed if the campaign begins collecting substantial witness statements, photographs, precise location evidence, sensitive personal information, or material for formal legal or regulatory processes.

At a glance

1. Introduction

This Privacy Policy explains how Save the Deveron Valley collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal information shared with the campaign.

Save the Deveron Valley is a community campaign focused on protecting the Deveron Valley's people, wildlife, roads, water, landscape, rural character, heritage, and local voice. The campaign may also be referred to in social permaculture project work as a live community-care and evidence-gathering case study.

We take privacy seriously because this campaign may involve local concerns, planning matters, environmental evidence, road-safety concerns, sensitive ecology, and people who may not feel safe speaking publicly.

We will collect only information that is useful for clear, lawful, and stated purposes. We will try to use anonymised or summarised information wherever possible, especially in public-facing materials.

2. Who is responsible for your data

Save the Deveron Valley / Jean D Reid is responsible for deciding how personal information collected for the campaign is used and protected.

Contact email: hello@savethedeveron.org

Website: SaveTheDeveron.org

Facebook: Save the Deveron Valley / @SaveTheDeveron

Please contact us if your personal information changes, if you want to update or remove something you have shared, or if you have questions about this policy.

3. What this policy covers

This policy covers personal information collected through SaveTheDeveron.org, the community survey, campaign email, the Save the Deveron Valley Facebook page, direct messages, emails, witness statements, photographs, documents, meetings, and other community contributions.

It also covers future campaign update systems, including email sign-up forms or double opt-in mailing systems if they are added later.

Third-party platforms such as Meta/Facebook, Formspree, Netlify, IONOS, Google, SOMBA, email providers, and social media platforms may also process data under their own privacy policies.

4. What personal data we may collect

Personal data means information that can identify a living person, directly or indirectly. It does not include fully anonymised data.

We may collect contact data such as your name, email address, phone number, social media profile name, postal area, broad postcode sector, or other contact details you choose to share.

We may collect communication data such as emails, private messages, survey answers, comments, witness statements, meeting notes, phone notes, photographs, documents, screenshots, and other information you send to us.

We may collect community survey data such as your connection to the Deveron Valley, whether you received SSEN notification, whether you attended a public information session, what concerns you have noticed, what support would help, and whether you are willing to be contacted.

We may collect evidence data about roads, traffic, quarrying, construction activity, noise, dust, blasting, vibration, light, water, flooding, wildlife, landscape, safety, planning matters, or other local impacts.

We may collect technical data through website, form, email, or social media systems, such as IP address, browser type, device information, usage information, cookies, and similar data. Some of this may be collected by third-party providers rather than directly by us.

5. Sensitive personal data

We do not actively seek sensitive personal data unless it is genuinely necessary for a stated campaign purpose.

Sensitive personal data can include information about health, disability, race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, political opinions, trade union membership, sex life, sexual orientation, genetic or biometric data, or criminal allegations or offences.

Because this is a community campaign, people may sometimes choose to share sensitive information by accident or because it is relevant to their concern. For example, someone might mention disability access, health impacts from noise or dust, fear of reprisals, political concerns, family circumstances, or the safety of children.

If you choose to share sensitive personal data with us, we will treat it with extra care. We will only use it for the purpose you provided it for, unless we have your further consent or are legally required to use it in another way.

Where we need to use sensitive personal data in an identifiable way, we will normally ask for your explicit consent first.

6. Sensitive ecology and protected-species information

The campaign may receive information about protected species, priority wildlife, nesting birds, sensitive habitats, river ecology, or other conservation-sensitive matters.

Please do not post exact protected-species locations in public comments or public social media threads.

If you provide sensitive ecology information through the community survey or by email, we will treat it as conservation-sensitive. We may record it in a restricted internal evidence log and use public-safe wording such as: 'conservation-sensitive wildlife information reported; exact location withheld'.

We may share sensitive ecology information with appropriate bodies, such as ecological records centres, statutory agencies, planning authorities, wildlife crime officers, or specialist advisers, where this is necessary and appropriate. We will avoid unnecessary public disclosure of precise locations.

7. Children and young people

Save the Deveron Valley may discuss issues affecting children, such as school routes, nursery access, road safety, pollution, noise, or community wellbeing.

We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children.

Please do not send children's names, photographs, school details, medical details, or other identifying information unless you are their parent or guardian and you understand how the information may be used.

If we receive unnecessary identifying information about a child, we may delete, anonymise, or redact it.

8. How we collect personal data

We may collect personal data through online surveys or forms, emails, social media messages, public comments on campaign posts, private messages, witness statements, meetings or conversations, photographs, videos, documents, screenshots, public planning portals, public documents, and communications with councils, agencies, elected representatives, regulators, or other public bodies.

We may also collect publicly available information where it is relevant to campaign research, planning matters, environmental concerns, or community evidence.

9. Why we use your personal data

We may use personal data to understand local concerns, lived experiences, and community needs; gather evidence about planning, road safety, environmental, ecological, landscape, or community impacts; respond to messages or enquiries; contact you if you have agreed to follow-up; create anonymous or summarised campaign evidence; support planning objections, consultations, complaints, or reports to relevant public bodies; prepare community guides, public posts, campaign updates, presentations, or social permaculture project materials; keep records of campaign activity, decisions, and evidence; protect people, wildlife, roads, water, landscape, and community wellbeing; and comply with legal obligations or lawful requests.

We will try to use anonymised or summarised information wherever possible, especially in public-facing materials.

10. Lawful basis for processing

We process personal data only when we have a lawful basis to do so.

Consent may apply when you voluntarily complete a survey, ask to receive updates, agree to follow-up, give a witness statement, or allow us to use your story, quotation, photograph, or evidence. You can withdraw consent at any time by contacting us.

Explicit consent may apply if you provide sensitive personal data and we need to use it in an identifiable way.

Legitimate interests may apply where we use personal data in a fair, limited, and proportionate way to manage the campaign, respond to community concerns, organise evidence, produce anonymised summaries, protect local interests, or contact relevant authorities. We will balance this against your rights, freedoms, safety, and privacy.

Legal obligation may apply where we are legally required to process or share data.

Vital interests may apply in rare cases where information is necessary to protect someone's life or immediate safety.

11. How we may share information

We will not sell or rent personal data.

We may share personal data only where necessary and appropriate, including with local authorities, planning authorities, statutory consultees, public agencies, environmental or ecological bodies, wildlife or road-safety bodies, health and safety or regulatory bodies, elected representatives, professional advisers, campaign service providers, police, or emergency services.

We will not submit your name, contact details, private story, photograph, or identifiable witness statement to a public body or public planning portal without your permission, unless we are legally required to do so or there is a serious safety issue.

Please note: if you personally submit comments to a planning authority, public consultation, public body, or planning portal, your submission may become part of a public record. The relevant authority's own privacy policy will then apply.

12. Anonymous, anonymised, and public information

You may be able to respond anonymously to some surveys or forms.

If you respond anonymously and do not provide contact details, we may not be able to identify your response later, amend it, or delete it on request.

We may use anonymised or summarised information in campaign materials, planning objections, presentations, reports, social permaculture project work, or public posts.

Examples include: 'several residents raised concern about road safety on narrow rural roads'; 'a number of responses mentioned noise, dust, or blasting'; or 'community evidence includes conservation-sensitive wildlife information, with exact locations withheld'.

We will avoid including details that could identify you unless you have agreed to this.

13. Photographs, videos, and location evidence

If you send photographs, videos, screenshots, documents, or location-based evidence, these may contain personal data. They may also include metadata such as date, time, location, device information, or identifying features.

Please only send images or evidence you are comfortable sharing for the campaign purpose.

Before using images publicly or submitting them to an authority, we will consider whether people, homes, vehicle registrations, children, private land, exact wildlife locations, or other identifying details need to be removed, blurred, cropped, anonymised, or withheld.

14. Data security

We will take reasonable steps to keep personal data secure and to prevent it from being lost, misused, accessed without permission, altered, or disclosed inappropriately.

This may include limiting access to personal data, using password-protected accounts, keeping evidence organised and labelled, avoiding unnecessary copies, redacting or anonymising sensitive details where possible, reviewing what data is still needed, and deleting data that is no longer necessary.

No online system is completely risk-free, but we will take privacy and safety seriously.

15. Data retention

We will only keep personal data for as long as needed for the purpose it was collected.

Anonymous survey summaries may be kept as part of campaign and social permaculture project records.

Contact details for campaign updates will be kept until you unsubscribe or ask to be removed.

Survey responses will normally be reviewed after 12 months.

Witness statements and evidence connected to live planning, enforcement, regulatory, legal, environmental, ecological, road-safety, or safety matters may be kept while the matter remains active and for a reasonable period afterwards.

Data that is no longer needed will be deleted, anonymised, or securely archived.

If you ask us to delete your personal data, we will do so unless we need to keep it for legal, safety, regulatory, or evidential reasons.

16. International transfers and third-party platforms

Some service providers, such as email, cloud storage, survey, website, SOMBA, or social media platforms, may store or process data outside the UK.

Where this happens, we will rely on the safeguards used by those providers, such as recognised transfer mechanisms, adequacy arrangements, or contractual protections.

You should also check the privacy policies of any third-party platform you use to contact us.

17. Your rights

Under UK data protection law, you may have rights in relation to your personal data. These may include the right to ask what personal data we hold about you, ask for a copy of your personal data, ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data, ask us to delete your data, ask us to restrict how we use your data, object to certain uses of your data, withdraw consent where we rely on consent, ask for your data in a portable format where this applies, and complain to the Information Commissioner's Office if you are unhappy with how your data is handled.

To exercise your rights, contact hello@savethedeveron.org. We may need to confirm your identity before responding to some requests.

18. Campaign updates, email sign-up, and double opt-in

Save the Deveron Valley will not use your personal data for commercial marketing.

If you choose to receive campaign updates, we will use your contact details only for that purpose unless you give further permission.

If you tick an updates or contact-consent box in the community survey, this records that you are happy to receive updates or be contacted. It is not automatically a confirmed mailing-list subscription unless and until a separate email sign-up or double opt-in process is used.

If a SOMBA form, website form, or email list is added later, we may use a double opt-in process. This means you may need to confirm your email address before receiving updates.

Campaign emails may include updates about planning matters, community surveys, public meetings, calls for evidence, witness templates, campaign resources, ecological or road-safety concerns, and ways to take part.

You can ask to stop receiving updates at any time by contacting us or using any unsubscribe option provided.

19. Cookies and website tracking

SaveTheDeveron.org may use cookies or similar technologies to make the website work, understand how people use the site, improve content, or support campaign communication.

Where required, the website will provide cookie information or cookie choices. You can also manage cookie settings through your browser.

Social media platforms, Formspree, Google, SOMBA, email systems, and other third-party services may use their own cookies or tracking technologies. Their own privacy and cookie policies will apply.

20. Third-party links

Campaign posts, emails, forms, or documents may link to third-party websites, planning portals, social media platforms, public documents, or agency pages.

We are not responsible for the privacy practices of third-party websites or platforms. Please review their privacy policies before submitting personal information to them.

21. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as the campaign develops, especially if we begin using new forms, websites, mailing systems, evidence systems, or public reporting processes.

The latest version will be linked from SaveTheDeveron.org, campaign forms, campaign emails, and the Save the Deveron Valley Facebook page where practical. It can also be made available on request.

22. Contact us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or how your information is handled, please contact:

Save the Deveron Valley

Email: hello@savethedeveron.org

Website: SaveTheDeveron.org

Facebook: Save the Deveron Valley / @SaveTheDeveron

Thank you for trusting Save the Deveron Valley with your information. We know that speaking up can feel exposed. Our aim is to gather community evidence with care, clarity, and respect, while protecting people as well as place.

Community Code of Conduct