Luton Borough Council

Public Rights of Way

We're committed to protecting your privacy when you use our services. We have a data protection officer who makes sure we respect your rights and follow the law and respect your rights.

If you have any concerns or questions about how we look after your personal information, please contact us at [email protected].

The rights of way team for Luton Council deal with:

public rights of way
access land
the definitive map and statement
definitive map modification orders and the register of applications for modification orders
the registers for Highways Act 1980 section 31(6) and Commons Act 2006 section 15A(1) statements and declarations
the rights of way improvement plan
local access forum

Personal data

‘Personal data’ means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. Personal data we will hold includes:

name
address
email address
telephone number
land ownership
how you may use a particular right of way or area of land
signatures

We receive application information either directly from the applicant or via an agent on their behalf. You may provide personal data via:

online forms
paper copy forms
email
online application for membership of the local access forum
consultation portal

Special category data

Special category data is sensitive and needs more protection. Special category data we will hold, includes health conditions (including information relating to disabilities).

Purpose for using your data

We act as the Highway Authority, Surveying Authority, Planning Authority and Commons Registration Authority for Luton Council and use the Highways Act 1980; the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981; the Town and Country Planning Act 1990; and the Commons Acts of 1965 and 2006 respectively in the course of our legitimate and legal functions and duties under these Acts, namely: to record and alter the public rights of way network; and for the purposes of registering and recording Commons and Town/Village Greens.

We use your personal data for a range of our statutory and discretionary functions. These relate to one or more of the following activities:

processing of applications seeking to affect the public rights of way network including recording applications; recording evidence from witnesses; consultations and consultation responses; serving of notices; and dealing with objectors
recording registrations of, and regulating, commons and town/village greens
recording of statutory declarations of non-intention to dedicate highways (section 31 deposits)
dealing with complaints, requests for service and inquiries from the members of the public
taking of legal action and/or enforcement action or for procedures related to the maintenance and/or improvement of the public rights of way network
communicating with volunteers, user-groups and contractors
administering the local access forum

We never use your personal data for commercial or marketing purposes.

Lawful basis

Personal data

Article 6 (c) - processing is necessary for the compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject.

Article 6 (e) - processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.

Special category data

Article 9 (g) – reasons of substantial public interest (with a basis in law). Condition met under paragraph 6 of Schedule 1 of Data Protection Act 2018 – “statutory etc. and government purposes”.

Who we share your information with and why:

We may need to share your information with others, which may include:

other local authorities, the Planning Inspectorate and other government departments, public bodies, other organisations, landowners and members of the public
other teams and services within Luton Council where law permits, or it is necessary to do so
the local access forum and external consultees (e.g. fire service, water companies, the police, the environment agency, natural England, historic England, active travel England)

Certain information, including personal data, is a matter of public record and will be available for public scrutiny as required by the various Acts and Council policies, including:

personal details of applicants and their agents for Public Path Orders, Definitive Map Orders, Town and Country Planning Act Orders and Town/Village Green applications
personal details within user evidence forms and statements of use, once an order is made or the application is the subject of an appeal
names of applicants, witnesses and landowners in officers’ decision reports submitted to senior officers or Council committees
deposits/declarations made under section 31 of the Highways Act 1980 and section 15A of the Commons Act 2006 are in the public domain upon completion of the declaration

We will remove (redact) personal information before sharing in the following situations:

personal details within user evidence forms and statements of use, before an order is made
details of third parties on user evidence forms, in interview notes or statements unless required under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981

We will not disclose personal details from complainants or those requesting services.

If you own or occupy land, with your consent, we may pass your contact details on to our contractors to enable them to carry out works on our public rights of way network over your land.

Local access forum additional information

The members of the local access forum at times communicate directly with one another between meetings. This facilitates rapid action when a consultation occurs between meetings but requires the sharing of email addresses between members of the local access forum.

The secretary holds a list of members who have agreed to share their email address with other members of the local access forum. You can choose whether to have your personal details included on this list.

Removing your details from the list will not affect your right to communicate between meetings; you can communicate via the secretary. However, this may take more time than direct communication.

Any automated decision making or profiling

None

Transfer of data to another country

None

Retention period

We will keep your data in accordance with our retention schedule. We only keep information for as long as necessary, either as a legal requirement (where a law says we must keep information for a specific period) or as accepted business practice.

Exercising your rights

You have the right to ask us to amend or delete your data as well transfer or limit its use.

We will consider each request individually. Where we must keep your data by law, we may be unable to action your request. We will write to you to explain our decision making.

Please see our main privacy statement using the orange button below If you want more information on how:

we keep your data safe
to request a change to the records we hold
to make a complaint

Read our main privacy policy

Date of notice

This notice was last updated 15 January 2025.