Hi all,
Recently our neighbour put in for planning on a piece of land next to us and opposite our neighbours.

No one has any problem beyond the fact their proposal places the property right next to the lane rather than approximately 10m back like everyone else’s, therefore the property is “out of keeping” etc.

The two neighbours opposite raised their concerns in writing to the council and, subsequently, the planning was rejected.

In the review process the council shares both the names and addresses of those who commented on their online portal.

The, now, disgruntled neighbour then gained access to one neighbours property (only the garden!) and intimidated and “bullied” her because, naturally, he was a bit annoyed and could see online that she had raised her concerns. She is a 72 year old woman who lives on her own.

WTF. How in this age of GDPR can the council give out her details online when the inevitable outcome will be some pretty disgruntled neighbours at the very best!?

FYI. The neighbour has now raised an appeal with Welsh government and, this time, we’ve echoed our neighbours concerns (partly due to his behaviour and show solidarity with those he intimidated and partly that their initial concerns are valid), so I expect a visit too when he sees my name on the appeal!

Unfortunately due to COVID and homeworking nobody in the council shows any interest or concern!

Yeah, cool story bro I know but I imagine some people’s lives are probably made a misery because of this action by the council.

The, now, disgruntled neighbour then gained access to one neighbours property (only the garden!) and intimidated and “bullied” her

I’d be reporting this to the police for starters.

Planning is a public process with a legal basis and any correspondence associated with the process automatically becomes public. Any letters submitted in favour of or opposing applications are public documents, as is their source (Its nothing to do with GDPR).

If your neighbour is intimidating people who have submitted objections that is a police matter but the planning officer involved should also be informed because it may influence the withdrawal of objections (Just be aware that this will also b kept on record)

If you really want your objections to be taken seriously look at your local plan (it will be available on the planning authority website) and identify all the reasons the application doesn’t comply with the policies listed as being applicable to your neighbourhood (Its a legal process so definite points which the planning officer can’t ignore are far more effective than general statements).

We didn’t report it but we did confront him and he recognised his actions were totally unacceptable.

Agreed – the publishing of names / addresses on the planning portal is wrong.

My neighbours and I are battling an application for a caravan park.
The applicant, who has history in the courts, submitted the application via a registered office. Meanwhile objections have their name and address published on the portal. Lovely.

We have now been advised by the local councillor to submit via a neighbourhood group, giving our names only.
The neighbourhood group is informal and exists only on Facebook but that’s enough.
This advice was a bit late for some of us.

The, now, disgruntled neighbour then gained access to one neighbours property (only the garden!)

“gained access to her garden” – you mean walked into her garden and rang her doorbell like any other visitor?

and intimidated and “bullied” her because, naturally, he was a bit annoyed and could see online that she had raised her concerns. She is a 72 year old woman who lives on her own.

if his actions were as you described its a criminal matter (I think a public order offence in E&W).

WTF. How in this age of GDPR can the council give out her details online when the inevitable outcome will be some pretty disgruntled neighbours at the very best!?

Look at it the otherway – imagine you’ve put in a planning application and there’s a bunch of anonymous objections. You’ve no way to know who objected, and therefore if the are real, one person with a vendetta and too much time on their hands, a group of people that you can discuss the issues with and try to find a compromise etc. A planning application is a quasi-judicial process, its entirely proper that people who make representations to the process do so in the open. Almost certainly there will be a readily available policy (and perhaps even a statement on the notice inviting her to object) that makes this clear. I’ve responded to stuff and my details are published – its my name and address, its not anything overly secretive. In some cases even if the name or address was redacted what the objector writes will make it obvious who they are.

Unfortunately due to COVID and homeworking nobody in the council shows any interest or concern!

don’t kid yourself its a covid issue – they were almost certainly ambivalent beforehand!

some people’s lives are probably made a misery because of this action by the council.

No – they are a misery because the planning applicant is a dick.

Something like this form of wording will appear on any local authority planning website.

Names and addresses of those commenting on an application – comments made on planning applications are regarded as forming part of the Statutory Register and, as such, we have a duty to make this information available for public inspection (in accordance with the provisions of the Local Government Access to Information Act (1985)) and will make copies available on the case file.

Please Note: if you do not provide or do not wish your name and address to appear within the case file then your comments will be treated as anonymous and your views will not be taken into account by the planning officer.

They make it pretty clear that your name and address will be published and the reason for this.

Thanks for the responses, my meagre research suggested that the current machinations behind planning are far from ideal and GDPR rules don’t exactly apply.

Regarding reporting the incident to the police then yes this was an option but it would be a waste of police time for little gain. The applicant is an older man himself (no, it’s no excuse) and he was properly remorseful once it was explained to him what he’d done.

Fair play, planning really is a thing to deal with!

We have now been advised by the local councillor to submit via a neighbourhood group, giving our names only.

Whose side is the councillor on? Objections logged this way will be form the background noise part of the planning report and may influence the local councillors but will have little if any weight in any appeal unless your local neighbourhood group is a formally constituted body.

If you believe in something so strongly you have to stand up and be counted, which includes identifying yourself in a way which proves you have a local stake in the matter (You are not asked for anymore information than is already on the electoral role).

Had similar in the past, when I put in an objection to a proposal for a house to be built on the end of an existing terrace, on the grounds that there was insufficient parking in the street for the houses already there. They had to re-submit plans to include off-road parking for 2 cars (inc an EV charging point). I did point out that due to the drop curb this would still mean the loss of parking space for the rest of the street. Mine was the only public objection , but was only one aspect of why planning was refused. My name and address is on the portal. I think they should confirm that you are in a position to make an objection (i.e you dont live the other end of the country) , but give you the the right to anonymity if you so wanted.

We saw the guy in the pub a short while later when we went out for lunch. I didn’t know who he was but my wife told me, and he obviously knew who I was, as he was giving me daggers all the time we were there. I’m not one for being intimidated, but could see how he could with others.

Fair play, planning really is a complete clusterfcuk of thing to deal with!

Unfortunately the same politicians who are arguing this are the same politicians which ensured that departments were cut back to levels where they struggle to fulfil their statutory duties, which exacerbates the problem which leads to arguments about abolishing planning controls so that your neighbour could do what ever they liked (It was almost as if those very politicians were acting completely out of character and were playing a game with a medium term objective).

I’m not a planner but I deal with a lot of planners. The system has never been perfect/easy but currently there is no scope for any of the help/advice which was once offered to help people negotiate the system.

Councils are governed by the Data Protection Act 1998 and their own Data Protection Policy informed by the advice of the Information Commissioners Office. Firstly, anonymous objections aren’t normally considered. But that is not the same thing as a redacted objection. Councils normally redact personal data such a signatures, email addresses, phone numbers, registration plates on cars etc. In fact, I once had a Council put a black square over the face of a person on an architects image. I’m not sure why as the image was CGI and the ‘person’ wasn’t human. Names and addresses never used to be redacted but some (not all) Councils do that now. Unless the letter you got from the Council expressly said your details would not be uploaded to their website, then I think you would have to accept they would be.

My local council have retro’d planning objections and made them anon.
I did an proper job on one for my neighbour and he still got it through , with ammendments.
Now we dont speak .
I dont care . building a house infront of a house , which has already had multiple extensions and was always going to be Air B&B or holliday let .

OK – so the DPA 1998 is history, we now have UK GDPR and DPA 2018.

The principles are largely the same – if the organisation has a lawful basis, in this case public task powered by planning legislation, then the processing (publication is processing) is lawful – well the first bit about needing a lawful basis is satisfied.

The local councils carry out this task under the relevant legislation. They should have informed you when you put in your objection exactly how your personal data would be processed, if you have any complaints about how your personal data was handled you can complain to the council data protection officer.