Privacy Policy - Gardeners Bowes Park

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Bowes Park collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data relating to all Gardeners Bowes Park customers in the Bowes Park area. It applies where we provide gardening services, respond to enquiries, manage bookings, issue invoices, and carry out related customer support. We are committed to handling personal data in a lawful, fair, transparent, and secure manner in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

By engaging our services, making an enquiry, or otherwise interacting with us, you acknowledge that your personal information may be processed as described in this policy. We only collect information that is necessary for legitimate business and service delivery purposes, and we seek to limit processing to what is relevant and proportionate.

1. Information We Collect

We may collect and process the following categories of personal data:

Identity details such as your name, title, or business name where applicable.
Contact details such as email address, telephone number, billing address, and service address.
Service information such as the type of gardening work requested, garden access instructions, preferred schedules, and notes relevant to the job.
Payment and transaction data such as invoice records, payment confirmations, and partial payment details needed to manage accounts.
Communication records such as emails, messages, call notes, complaint details, and service feedback.
Technical data if you use our digital channels, including basic device and usage information, where necessary for security or performance purposes.

We do not intentionally collect special category data unless it is strictly necessary and you have provided it, or another lawful basis applies. If such data is ever provided to us accidentally, we will handle it with appropriate care and limits.

2. How We Use Personal Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

To respond to enquiries and provide quotations.
To arrange, deliver, and manage gardening services.
To communicate appointment changes, service updates, and operational matters.
To issue invoices, process payments, and maintain financial records.
To deal with complaints, disputes, or service quality issues.
To maintain accurate business records and support internal administration.
To meet legal, tax, accounting, and regulatory obligations.
To improve our customer service and service planning.

We use personal data only for the purposes for which it was collected, unless we reasonably determine that it is needed for a compatible purpose that is permitted by law.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for each use of personal data. The lawful bases we rely on are:

Contract

We process personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes handling bookings, providing agreed services, managing customer accounts, and issuing invoices.

Legal Obligation

We process data when we must comply with legal obligations, including tax, accounting, record-keeping, and fraud prevention requirements.

Legitimate Interests

We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. This includes administrative management, service improvement, customer communication, business security, and record maintenance. Where appropriate, we assess and balance these interests before processing.

Consent

In some limited situations, we may rely on your consent, for example where you agree to receive optional marketing messages or to provide information not otherwise required for service delivery. You may withdraw consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

4. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including to satisfy legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Retention periods depend on the type of data and the nature of the service relationship.

Customer and service records are generally retained for the duration of the service relationship and for a reasonable period afterwards to manage follow-up queries, disputes, or warranty-type matters.
Financial and tax records are retained for the period required by law.
Communication records are kept for as long as needed to resolve issues, maintain service history, and support lawful business administration.

When data is no longer required, we will delete it securely or anonymise it so that it can no longer identify you. We regularly review retained information to ensure it is not kept longer than necessary.

5. Processors and Sharing of Data

We may share personal data with trusted third parties who act as data processors or independent controllers, only where necessary and lawful. Processors assist us in operating our services and may include:

Accounting and bookkeeping service providers.
Payment processing providers.
IT support, hosting, and data storage providers.
Communication tools used to manage customer messages and records.
Professional advisers such as accountants or legal advisers, where needed.

Where a third party acts as a processor, they are required to process personal data only on our instructions, to keep it secure, and to comply with data protection law. We do not sell personal data. We also do not share personal data for unrelated marketing purposes without a lawful basis.

In limited circumstances, we may disclose personal data if required by law, court order, regulator request, or to protect our rights, property, customers, or the public.

6. Security of Personal Data

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, staff confidentiality obligations, and routine review of data handling practices. Although no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, we aim to maintain an appropriate level of protection based on the nature of the information processed.

7. Your Rights

Depending on the circumstances and legal basis for processing, you may have the following rights under data protection law:

Right of access - to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to rectification - to ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
Right to erasure - to request deletion of your data in certain circumstances.
Right to restriction - to ask us to limit how we use your data in certain cases.
Right to object - to object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
Right to data portability - to request transfer of certain data in a structured, commonly used format where applicable.
Right to withdraw consent - where processing is based on consent.

You also have the right to raise concerns with the UK Information Commissioner's Office if you believe your data protection rights have not been respected. We encourage you to raise concerns directly first so that we can try to resolve the issue promptly and fairly.

8. Children and Vulnerable Individuals

Our services are primarily intended for adult customers. If we ever process information relating to a child, it will only be where necessary and with appropriate safeguards. We do not knowingly collect more information than is required for the service arrangement.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal obligations, or data handling practices. Any updated version will apply from the date it is published or otherwise communicated. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically so that they remain informed about how their information is handled.

10. Scope of This Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Bowes Park customers in the Bowes Park area, including prospective customers, current customers, and former customers where we continue to hold personal data for lawful reasons. It is intended to provide clear information about how we manage personal data in connection with our gardening services and related administrative activities.

In summary: we collect only the data needed to provide and manage our services, process it on a lawful basis, retain it only as long as necessary, share it carefully with trusted processors, and respect your rights under data protection law. Protecting your privacy is an important part of how we operate.