Payments privacy notice
1 Council Contact Details
1.1 West Northants Council
Registered Office:
One Angel Square
Angel Street
Northampton
NN1 1ED
Tel: 0300 126 7000
2 Information that we hold
2.1 We collect and process the following information when taking payments for lawful charges eg council tax, housing rent or business rates, or where you are paying for other services offered by the council eg Registration services, fines, pest control or leisure facilities using your credit or debit card.
- Name
- Address
- Contact details
- Credit or Debit Card details
- Account or reference numbers
3 How the information is obtained
3.1 The personal information we process in relation to payments is provided to us directly by you, the cardholder. If a third party is using a card to make a payment transaction, permission will be sought from the cardholder before the information is processed
3.2 There are a number of reasons why we need to collect and use your personal information. Generally, we collect and use personal information where:
- you have requested a service from us
- you have entered into a contract with us
4 What we do with the information
4.1 We use the information that you have given us to process payment information via various payment methods. This could be via our online payment system, over the telephone automated or with a member of staff, or face to face with our staff.
We do not handle any of your payment card details ourselves but use authorised payment processing partners to do this securely on our behalf.
4.2 We may share some or all of this information with other council departments or third parties to recover debt, allocate payments to accounts or to provide a service.
The council has various card payment providers all of which adhere to the Payment Card Industry Security Standard.
Payments for some specific services are currently handled by North Northants Council as a shared service on behalf of West Northants Council under contract.
We may also share information with our auditors, central government or the police to protect .
5 How long we keep your information for and how we securely dispose of it after use
5.1 We keep your personal information in relation to card payments in line with the council’s retention schedules. This information is retained for a maximum of 7 years ie. for 6 years plus the current financial year.
5.2 We will securely dispose of your information in line with the council's retention schedules.
6 How we store your information
6.1 Your information is securely stored on the council’s electronic systems, full card details/numbers are not retained by the council. Full card details and payment information is stored by our card payment processing suppliers for only as long as it is necessary.
7 Your data protection rights
7.1 The law gives you a number of rights to control what personal information is used by us and how we can use it. Please see section 15 of the council’s Privacy Policy for further information.
7.2 Please be aware that your rights may differ depending on the lawful basis for processing your personal data.
8 Who to contact
8.1 If you would like further information about how we use your personal information, or you wish to exercise one of your data rights or you wish to complain about the use of your personal information please contact the Data Protection Officer.
8.2 If you are still dissatisfied once you have contacted the Data Protection Officer, you have the right to complain to the ICO.
The ICO’s address:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
9 Changes to this privacy notice
9.1 Privacy notices are live documents, which will be updated or revised in line with legislation.
Last updated 06 July 2023