We are Basingstoke & Deane Independents (BDI) – a group of independent councillors, candidates, and campaigners who work together to represent and engage with our local communities.

This privacy notice covers:

• Councillors – when using BDI systems or acting jointly with BDI.

• Candidates – when standing for election with BDI or supported by a BDI agent.

• Campaigners and volunteers – when helping BDI with community engagement or election activity.

Sometimes BDI and councillors act as joint controllers. In other cases, councillors remain controllers in their own right (for casework).

We may collect:

• Contact details (name, address, phone, email).

• Notes from conversations, canvassing, or surveys.

• Opinions on local or political issues.

• Volunteer and supporter information.

We use this information for community and political engagement – that means talking with residents year-round, providing updates, seeking your views, and asking for your support during elections.

We rely on:

• Legitimate interests – for community and political engagement.

• Consent – when you sign up to updates or request information.

• Substantial public interest – for processing political opinions in the context of democratic engagement.

Councillors: When handling casework, councillors are separate controllers.

Joint working: Councillors within BDI sometimes work together on issues – both within the same ward and across different areas. In these cases, the councillors involved may act as joint controllers for your data.

Community engagement: Where residents have agreed, both BDI and councillors may use BDI systems to keep in touch. In this case, we act as joint controllers.

Service providers: We use trusted processors (see section 7).

Legal requirements: We may share data with the Electoral Commission or returning officers if required by law.

We never sell your data.

Community and political engagement data is kept while you remain engaged with us and reviewed regularly. This covers all ongoing engagement with residents, including both year-round activity and election campaigning. You can opt out at any time.

Councillor casework is the responsibility of individual councillors. If their term ends, BDI may help transfer casework records securely to another councillor for continuity, where appropriate.

You have rights over your information. You can:

• Ask to see what data we hold about you.

• Ask for it to be corrected or deleted.

• Object to its use for engagement or campaigning.

• Withdraw consent if you’ve given it.

• Complain to the ICO at ico.org.uk.

We sometimes use trusted providers to help with our work, such as:

• IT and cloud services for secure storage and communication.

• Printers and mailing companies for newsletters, surveys, and election material.

• Tools for managing events, volunteers, or supporter engagement.

• Systems used by councillors to log engagement with residents (with their agreement).

These providers only act on our instructions and cannot use your data for themselves.

If you have any questions about how BDI uses your data, please get in touch with our Data Protection Officer:

👤 Councillor Paul Harvey – Data Protection Officer

📧 P_D_Harvey@hotmail.com