Privacy and cookies

Privacy Statement

Who are we?

Meeting Place is a communications agency working with clients across a range of sectors, including residential, retail and energy, as well as landowners and universities. We work with clients to actively engage with local communities, stakeholders, politicians and the media.

We are collecting your data, reviewing, storing it and sharing it with OCU and SSEN. We want to tell you what information we will be keeping about you, why we keep this information, how long we will keep it and what we will use it for – with your consent.

We are working with Instalcom and SSEN.

What data we collect and why

Most commonly, we will use your personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate interests and your interests and where fundamental rights do not override those interests. 

We define a legitimate interest as the interest of our business in managing our commercial operations and in conducting our enterprise.  It can apply to our staff, our clients and people that we come into contact with during our day-to-day business. 

In determining whether we have a legitimate interest in processing your personal data, we will consider your rights and any potential impact on you (both positive and negative). We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted by law).

We may also use your personal data in instances where we have received active consent to do so for a specific purpose. 

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. Consent can be withdrawn at any time and if you wish to receive an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Your information

The information we collect is what you choose to provide to us. This can include:

• Your name

• Your address

• Your telephone number

• Your email address

• Social media handles 

• Your feedback and comments

• Any additional information you choose to provide

We use this data for the purpose of:

• Managing stakeholder relationships on our own behalf and on behalf of our clients

• To contact you regarding any feedback you may have provided during the public consultation process.

• Directing and measuring campaigns on behalf of our clients.

• To keep you updated about the proposals discussed at our consultation event. We may do this by letter, telephone or email. 

• If you have specifically consented we may use your data to contact you regarding products or services we deem may be of interest to you.

• This is important for us in terms of business growth/development, record keeping and demonstrating value to our clients. 

Data Storage

We ensure your data is kept secure and protected by:

• Storing your data on a secure database which can only be accessed by appropriately trained staff.

• Only sharing your data with Instalcom and SSEN

• Keeping your personal data for no longer than reasonably necessary and only retaining your data for the period of the planning and post consent process.

• Removing your personal data from our database and erasing it from our records once the planning process has been completed.

Will anyone else get to see your information?

If you have provided feedback at a public consultation, this response may be reproduced, either in summary or verbatim, in a document for Instalcom and SSEN, which will set out details of the community consultation that has been undertaken. However, these responses will be anonymized, so that personal details will never be provided in conjunction with feedback responses.

Meeting Place will not pass on your personal data to third parties without first obtaining your consent.

What rights do you have over the information we hold on you?

At any point while we are in possession of your information you have the right to:

• Request a copy of the information we hold on you.

• Rectify any information which we may hold which is incorrect or inaccurate.

• Ask for the information we hold about you to be erased from our records.

• Where certain conditions apply, you have the right to limit the type of information we are processing about you.

• You have the right to object to certain types of processing such as direct marketing.

In the event that Meeting Place refuses your request to access the information we hold on you, we will provide you with a reason as to why.

If your data is to be used for something other than what we have already covered here.

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Privacy Notice, then we will provide you with a new notice explaining this and how to opt in. This could include marketing information about the new homes, or contact post planning, during construction. 

Marketing

From time to time we may send you information about products and services we offer which may be of interest to you. Our legal basis for contacting you for marketing will fall under consent or legitimate interest.

Consent: this means freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous. When you have opted into our mailing lists through the Subscribe button on our websites you can choose what you want to hear about by selecting your areas of interest in our preference centre.

Legitimate interest: this is when we have a business or commercial reason to contact you but does not conflict unfairly with your own rights and interest, and that we’ve performed a Legitimate Interest Assessment.

If you have signed up to access any e-newsletters, we will provide a tick box for you to ask you to opt in to our marketing emails. If you choose to do so we will only send you marketing communications that are related to the sector, service or product type you have expressed interest in.

What if you change your mind about the consent you have given?

Should you wish to stop us from contacting you for marketing purposes please contact hello@meeting-place.uk, with the subject heading of ‘Unsubscribe from all Marketing emails’. Or through the “Unsubscribe” link on any of the marketing emails you may receive from Meeting Place.