Democratic services privacy notice

How we use your information

The categories of information that we collect, process, hold and share include:

Personal information (such as name, address, telephone number and email)
Parish Council office/clerk contact details
Freeman and Honorary Alderman contact details

If you would like to participate in meetings of the Planning Committee or Council, Democratic Services will ask you for your:

Name
Email or postal address
Telephone number

In order to make a video recording of the meetings held in public (Part 1), we will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:

Your voice will be recorded if you speak at the Area Planning Committee or ask a question at Council
Your image will also be recorded if you use a video feed to speak at the Area Planning Committee
Your name will be recorded when invited to speak and will be made available on the recording of the meeting

Your voice and image will be collected from the recording of the meeting which is being captured by the Council. The meeting itself is held within the Microsoft Teams software used by the Borough Council to host virtual meetings.

Why we collect and use this information

We use your data to:

Enable us to send you correspondence related to Council meetings
Provide information on our website for residents of Tonbridge and Malling to be able to contact relevant town/parish councils and Borough Councillors
Maintain distribution lists for a number of Council related functions such as Standards, Planning and Licensing
Enable you to take part in certain meetings (whether remotely or in person)
Invite to civic events
Maintain an archive for historic purposes and research.

The lawful basis on which we use this information

We collect and use this information for the performance of tasks carried out in the public interest (i.e. to to involve local representatives, to consult and co-operate and promote democracy) or for official functions under local government legislation, including:

Local Government Act 1972
Local Government Act 1999
Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007
Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009

In relation to Members’ interests (including those of Parish Councillors) we collect and use this information to fulfil legal obligations upon the Council.

Storing this information

For Borough Councillors information is held for the period of office which is 4 years. However, all data is reviewed annually to ensure that website content and contact details are correct.

For Parish Councils, information for the Chairman and Clerk is held for the term of their office. This is reviewed annually to ensure that website content and contact details are correct.

For Freeman and Honorary Alderman information is held indefinitely so that the Borough can maintain a historical record of persons upon whom it has conferred special status. This information is reviewed regularly to ensure that contact details are correct.

Recordings of meetings will be held for a limited period, but not longer than 1 year from the date of the meeting, in the event that a decision or resolution of the Council is challenged.

Who we share this information with

We routinely share information with:

Borough Councillors
Members of the public
Planning Services

Public Meetings are livestreamed and recorded on YouTube.

Why we share this information

We share information to enable effective communication between Borough Councillors, Officers, Parish Councils and residents, businesses and organisations of Tonbridge and Malling and in order to promote democratic engagement.

Public Register

The Council is required by statute to keep a public register of Borough Councillors’ Disclosable Pecuniary Interests. This register may contain personal data.

To view the Council’s register go to https://democracy.tmbc.gov.uk//mgMemberIndex.aspx?bcr=1

In addition, the Council is required by statute to publish a register of interests for parish councils. This register may contain personal data.

To view this register go to: https://democracy.tmbc.gov.uk/ecCatDisplay.aspx?sch=doc&cat=13335&path=0

Requesting access to your personal data

Under data protection legislation, you have the right to request access to information about you that we hold. To make a request for your personal information please contact the Council’s Data Protection Officer at foi@tmbc.gov.uk.

You also have the right to:

object to processing of personal data that is likely to cause, or is causing, damage or distress
prevent processing for the purpose of direct marketing
object to decisions being taken by automated means
in certain circumstances, have personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed; and
claim compensation for damages caused by a breach of the Data Protection regulations

If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, we request that you raise your concern with us in the first instance. Alternatively, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/

Further information

If you would like further information about this privacy notice, please contact the Council’s Data Protection Officer at foi@tmbc.gov.uk.

The Council collects and uses personal information for a number of purposes across all of its departments and functions. To find out more about how the Council uses the personal information it collects, please refer to the Corporate Privacy Notice.

Changes to the privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review. This notice was last reviewed in January 2025

Live streaming privacy notice

How we use your information

This notice relates to the management of, and live streaming of, Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council (the Council) meetings of Full Council, Cabinet, Committees, Advisory Groups and Panels. This notice relates to all meetings held in public.

This privacy notice explains how the Council collects, uses and shares your personal data, and your rights in relation to the personal data we hold. The Council is the data controller for your personal data which means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. The Council is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office Registration number Z5576542. We are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information set out in this privacy notice.

It is important that you read this notice, together with any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information.

The Council will use audio and visual data from participants at Area Planning Committees and Council meetings to broadcast a live stream of the meeting.

The categories of information that we collect, process, hold and share include:

If you would like to participate in meetings of the Planning Committee or Council, Democratic Services will ask you for your:

name
email or postal address
telephone number

In order to make a video recording or live stream of the meetings held in public (Part 1), we will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:

Your voice will be recorded if you speak at the Area Planning Committee or ask a question at Council
Your image will also be recorded if you use a video feed to speak at the Area Planning Committee
Your name will be recorded when invited to speak and available on the recording of the meeting

We collect personal information about you by email, in writing or by telephone contact before the meetings in order to manage your participation. Your voice and image will be collected from the recording of the meeting which is being captured by the Council. The meeting itself is held within the Microsoft Teams software used by the Borough Council to support and facilitate meetings.

Why we collect and use this information

Your contact details will be used by Democratic Services to manage your request to participate in the meetings and facilitate your taking part.

We will live stream all public meetings of the authority using the Council’s YouTube account ((67) TMBC Meetings - YouTube) to allow public access to view the meeting. In order to achieve this, the Council uses Open Broadcaster Software to capture the Microsoft Teams meeting and transmit through the YouTube platform. Live stream recordings may be used at the time of the event and the recording will be retained online via YouTube as a record of the event for a limited period but no longer than 1 year from the date of the meeting.

If we are unable to live stream a meeting due to technical difficulties, the proceedings will be recorded using MS Teams and the video will be uploaded to our YouTube platform as soon as possible.

The lawful basis on which we use this information

We must have a lawful basis for processing your information. The lawful basis for processing your personal data is:

The processing is necessary for the Council to perform a task in the public interest or for its official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law.

The situations in which we will process your personal information are listed below.

To invite you to participate in a meeting of the Council
When we record a meeting of the Council
When we livestream a meeting of the Council

Collecting this information

Your personal information will be processed by Democratic Services Officers for the purposes of administrating and facilitating public participation in a specific Meeting.

Storing this information

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

The recording will be held for a limited period (but no longer than 1 year from the date of the meeting) in the event that a decision or resolution of the Council is challenged.

Who we share this information with

We will only share your personal data with third parties where required by law.

All of the Council’s third-party service providers are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal information for their own purposes and they may only process your personal information for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

If you wish to participate in a public meeting of the Council, then names, email addresses and images of those invited and participating may be viewable by others taking part in the meeting. We will also share the live stream or recording of the meeting with the following social media sites:

Youtube

Hence the data is also shared with

Any member of the public that listens to, or views, the live stream through YouTube.

Requesting access to your personal data

Under data protection legislation, you have the right to request access to information about them that we hold. To make a request for your personal information please contact Adrian Stanfield, the Council’s Data Protection Officer at foi@tmbc.gov.uk.

You also have the right to:

object to processing of personal data that is likely to cause, or is causing, damage or distress
prevent processing for the purpose of direct marketing object to decisions being taken by automated means
in certain circumstances, have personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed; and
claim compensation for damages caused by a breach of the Data Protection regulations

Further information

If you would like further information about this privacy notice, please contact Adrian Stanfield, the Council’s Data Protection Officer at foi@tmbc.gov.uk.

Changes to the privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review. This notice was last updated on 2 January 2025