Gardeners Creekmouth Data Protection and Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Creekmouth collects, uses, stores, and protects personal data of its customers in the area. It is designed to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation and related data protection laws. This Policy applies to all Gardeners Creekmouth customers and prospective customers located in the area in which our services are offered.

Scope and Data Controller

Gardeners Creekmouth acts as the data controller in relation to the personal data described in this Privacy Policy. This means that Gardeners Creekmouth decides why and how your personal data is processed. This Policy covers all interactions you have with us as a customer or potential customer, including enquiries about our gardening services, bookings, and ongoing service delivery.

Personal Data We Collect

Gardeners Creekmouth collects and processes personal data that is necessary to provide gardening and related services. The categories of personal data we may collect include:

Identification details such as first and last name, and where applicable, business or organisation name.

Contact details such as postal address, service address, and general location information required to attend and provide services at your premises.

Communication details such as your preferred contact method and the content of communications you send to us, including enquiries, feedback, or complaints.

Service information such as details of the gardening services you request, visit history, booking dates and times, and notes relevant to the safe and effective delivery of our services at your property.

Billing and payment information such as payment status, amounts charged, and transaction records. Where we use third-party payment processors, we do not receive or store full payment card details.

Technical and usage information relating to our website or online tools, such as pages visited, time and date of access, and basic device and browser information, which may be collected through cookies or similar technologies where permitted by law.

Lawful Bases for Processing

Gardeners Creekmouth relies on one or more of the following lawful bases for processing your personal data:

Contract performance. We process personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you, for example to respond to your service requests, confirm bookings, attend your property, and provide ongoing gardening services.

Legal obligations. We may process personal data where it is necessary for compliance with legal obligations, such as bookkeeping, tax requirements, and responding to lawful requests from competent authorities.

Legitimate interests. We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and interests. This includes activities such as managing customer relationships, improving services, handling enquiries, ensuring site and system security, and maintaining records of our work.

Consent. In limited cases we may rely on your consent, for example for certain types of direct marketing or for the use of non-essential cookies. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

How We Use Personal Data

Gardeners Creekmouth uses personal data for the following purposes:

To respond to enquiries, provide quotations, and manage bookings for gardening and related services.

To plan, schedule, and deliver gardening services at your property, including record-keeping about work carried out and any follow-up visits required.

To manage billing and payments, including invoicing, handling payment confirmations, and maintaining financial records.

To provide customer service, including dealing with feedback, complaints, and service queries, and to keep accurate records of these interactions.

To manage and improve our services, website, and customer experience, including the use of aggregated or anonymised data for analysis where appropriate.

To comply with legal and regulatory requirements and to cooperate with relevant authorities where required by law.

Data Sharing and Processors

Gardeners Creekmouth does not sell your personal data. We may share personal data with carefully selected third parties who act as data processors on our behalf. These processors may include:

Service providers who support the operation of our business, such as providers of booking systems, customer management tools, accounting or invoicing systems, and information technology support services.

Payment processors who handle card payments or other electronic payment methods on our behalf. These processors receive only the data necessary to process your payment and are required to protect it.

Professional advisers such as accountants or legal advisers where this is necessary for the management of our business and compliance with legal obligations.

Public authorities or law enforcement agencies where we are required to disclose personal data to comply with applicable laws or valid legal requests.

All processors engaged by Gardeners Creekmouth are required to process personal data only in accordance with our written instructions, to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data, and to maintain confidentiality.

International Data Transfers

Where any of our processors or service providers are located outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, or store data in such locations, Gardeners Creekmouth will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your personal data in accordance with applicable data protection laws. These safeguards may include the use of standard contractual clauses or other mechanisms recognised by data protection regulators.

Data Retention

Gardeners Creekmouth retains personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including for the purpose of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

Customer and service records, including contact details and service history, are generally retained for the duration of our relationship with you and for a reasonable period thereafter, in case of queries or disputes and to comply with legal obligations.

Financial and transactional information is retained for the periods required by applicable tax and accounting laws.

Where personal data is no longer required for the purposes for which it was collected, and we are not required by law to retain it, we will securely delete, anonymise, or otherwise dispose of it.

Security of Personal Data

Gardeners Creekmouth takes the security of your personal data seriously. We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised or unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction, or damage. These measures may include controlled access to systems, secure storage methods, and staff awareness of data protection responsibilities. While we strive to protect your personal data, no system can be completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Your Data Protection Rights

As a customer of Gardeners Creekmouth in the area, you have certain rights in relation to your personal data, subject to the conditions and exemptions set out in applicable data protection laws.

Right of access. You have the right to request confirmation as to whether we process your personal data and to obtain a copy of that data, together with information about how and why it is processed.

Right to rectification. You have the right to request that inaccurate or incomplete personal data is corrected or updated without undue delay.

Right to erasure. In certain circumstances, you have the right to request that your personal data is deleted, for example where it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected or where you withdraw consent and there is no other legal basis for processing.

Right to restriction. You may have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data, for example while we verify its accuracy or assess an objection you have raised.

Right to object. You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests as our lawful basis, including profiling related to those interests. We will consider your objection and stop processing unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests, rights, and freedoms, or unless processing is needed for legal claims.

Right to data portability. Where processing is based on consent or contract and carried out by automated means, you may have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and to have it transmitted to another controller where technically feasible.

Right to withdraw consent. Where we rely on consent as the lawful basis for processing, you may withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection authority if you believe that your data protection rights have been infringed.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

Gardeners Creekmouth may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or for other operational reasons. The most current version will always apply to the personal data we process. We encourage you to review this Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal data.