Privacy Policy

We value your data and take your privacy seriously.

This policy describes how Coton Manor Garden collects and uses your personal information when you interact with Coton Manor Garden via our website or when you purchase season tickets or vouchers from our website or send an enquiry though our website.

This policy was last updated in October 2020.

If you would like to contact us about this policy, you can do so by: 

How we collect information about you

We may collect information about you when you interact with us via our website:

  • if you sign up to our mailing list;
  • if you provide feedback in relation to our website;
  • that you provide in relation to any enquiry, order or transaction you carry out through our website including ticket and/or voucher sales.

We also collect certain non-personal information when you visit our website. For example, we may collect and store your IP address, reference site domain name, and demographic information. We also may collect information including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data and usage while on our. We will only collect such data in aggregate form (so that no individual user is identified). 

How we use your personal information

Orders or purchases via the websites

We collect your name, contact and payment details and other personal information you provide when you order or purchase products and services from us via our websites. Coton Manor Garden will use this personal information to process your order/purchase. Where you have purchased products/services from us through our website, we will retain the payment details you provided for that purchase for 12 months from the date of the purchase to allow us to process any refund that may be due to you. This processing of your information is necessary for the performance of our sales contract with you.

We will retain the information you provide to us for our legitimate interests of understanding our customers and providing better products and services for our customers. We will not store your payment details for this purpose.

We collect information about you when you start an enquiry, order or transaction on the Website but which you then abandon or do not complete. We collect your personal information even if you do not click “next” or “submit” on the relevant page. We may use this information to contact you by email about that enquiry, order or transaction. Such contact will be to determine if we can offer any assistance to help you complete the enquiry, order or transaction, or if we can provide alternative products or services that may be of greater interest to you. We will not store your payment details for this purpose. The legal basis for processing your personal information in this way is that it is necessary for our legitimate interests to promote our products/services to you. When we collect your information, we will give you the option not to receive these emails. Otherwise, we will retain your personal information for ten years for our legitimate interests of understanding our customers and users of our Website.

Enquiries, providing feedback or complaints

We collect your name, contact details and other personal information you provide when you make an enquiry or provide feedback to Coton Manor Garden. We may collect this information via completion of online forms or by corresponding or speaking with us by telephone, email, letter, in person or otherwise. We will use your personal information to process your enquiry, to follow up on your feedback and to resolve any complaint. We will keep your personal information for a period of 12 months from the date of your enquiry, feedback or complaint or the date of our last correspondence with you. This is to allow us to be able to respond to any follow up queries or subsequent correspondence from you on your enquiry, feedback or complaint. This processing is necessary for our legitimate interests in providing a better experience for you and others who interact with Coton Manor Garden and in improving our customer service and our business operations. 

Registering to receive our mailing list 

We will collect your name and email address and other personal information you provide when you register for our mailing list. We will use this information to send you the information you have requested. We will send you these with your consent which we obtain at the point you request these regular updates. You may withdraw your consent to processing your personal information for this purpose at any time by contacting us or by clicking “unsubscribe” in the communications we send you. We will retain this information until you withdraw your consent. 

User account registration with our website

When you create a user account with our website, we collect your name and contact details and other personal information you provide during user account registration. We will retain this personal information for the duration of your user account with us. We will process your personal information to administer and maintain your user account. This processing of your personal information is necessary for our legitimate interests of allowing you to engage with us and to complete transactions for our products/services more easily. 

Marketing emails

We may use the personal information we collect as part of our customer relationship with you to inform you by email about exclusive offers and promotions we think may be of interest to you. When we collect your personal information, we will give you the option not to receive these emails. You can change your mind at any time by contacting us or clicking “unsubscribe” in the emails we send you. This is necessary for our legitimate interests for promoting our products and services. 

Your interactions with Coton Manor Garden 

Individuals interact with us in multiple ways and provide us with personal information in different contexts. We may use your personal information to obtain a profile of your different interactions with us and to understand your preferences This is necessary for our legitimate interests of personalising your experience and for tailoring the content, offers and promotions we send to you. 

When you visit our website or receive e-mails from us we may automatically collect the following technical information:

  • technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer device to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform;
  • information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through and from our Websites (including date and time); 
  • page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page and any phone number used to call us; 
  • information provided by cookies. Our website uses cookies to improve the user’s experience while visiting our Websites. Please refer to our cookies policies for more information. 
  • when we e-mail you, such e-mails may contain tracking facilities. Activity is tracked and stored in a database for future analysis and evaluation. Such tracked activity may include but is not restricted to: the opening of emails, forwarding of emails, the clicking of links within the email content, times, dates and frequency of activity. 

We may collect information in an aggregated form (so that no individual user is identified) for statistical analysis to allow us to understand our customers and improve our services and performance including the functionality of our website and user experience. 

The legal basis for processing your personal information (as well as pseudonymised or anonymised information generated from your personal information) in this way is that it is necessary for our legitimate interests of providing a better experience for you and other users of our website, promoting our products and services and understanding our customers and users of our website. We will retain this information for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity.

Applying to work or volunteer at Coton Manor Garden

We collect personal information from you if you apply to work at Coton Manor Garden. We will only use the information you supply to us to process your application, to make a decision about your recruitment or appointment and to monitor recruitment statistics. This may include checking you are legally entitled to work in the UK. 

We use your personal information collected during the application process on the following legal bases: 

  • Where it is necessary to process your application or to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation; or
  • Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. Those legitimate interests include demonstrating compliance with legal, regulatory and corporate governance obligations, use as part of investigations by regulatory bodies, or in connection with legal proceedings and requests, good employment practice and ensuring safe working practices.

We may collect information about criminal convictions as part of the recruitment process, but we will only do so if it is appropriate given the nature of the role and where we are legally able to do so. 

We will share your personal information in accordance with the section below “Who we share your information with”. Where we want to disclose information to other third parties, for example where we want to take up a reference or undertake criminal records checks (where appropriate), we will not do so without informing you beforehand unless the disclosure is required by law.  

Personal information about unsuccessful candidates will be held for three months from the decision not to progress their applications in case of a future vacancy which we may invite them to apply for, following which we will delete it. We will retain de-personalised statistical information about applicants to help inform our recruitment activities, but no individuals are identifiable from that data. 

If you have applied as a volunteer at Coton Manor Garden, and you are successful, we will record, process, keep and securely hold personal information as part of your volunteering / work record in accordance with the section below “Volunteers and Temporary Workers at Coton Manor Garden”. 

Volunteers and Temporary Workers at Coton Manor Garden 

This section of the privacy policy describes how Coton Manor Garden collects and uses your personal information during and after your engagement with Coton Manor Garden. It applies to all volunteers and temporary workers for roles at Coton Manor Garden. 

The kind of information we hold about you

We typically collect personal information from you through the recruitment process and in the course of your engagement with us, as well as from publicly accessible sources, via our IT and other systems and third parties such as employment agencies. 

We may collect, store, and use your personal information, including:

  • Personal details such as name, address, date of birth, photographs, telephone numbers, personal email addresses, next of kin, and emergency contact information.
  • Financial details such as your National Insurance number, bank account details, payroll records, tax information, pay and/or expenses.
  • Recruitment information (including copies of right to work documentation, references and other information included in a CV or cover letter).
  • Work records (including any terms issued to you and time/attendance records) and CCTV footage.
  • Information about your use of our information and communications systems.
  • Images of you taken at Coton Manor Garden. 

We may also collect, store and use “special categories” of more sensitive personal information (which requires a higher level of protection) such as health information and information about criminal convictions and offences.

How we use information about you and our legal bases for doing that

We will use personal information (or special categories of personal information) about you:

  • To pay you, deduct tax and National Insurance contributions or reimburse expenses.
  • For operational reasons, to maintain records and ascertain compliance with policies.
  • To promote Coton Manor Garden where we use images and footage of you taken at Coton Manor Garden.
  • To ascertain your fitness to work, managing sickness, and health and safety obligations.
  • To ensure information security and to protect our networks/systems and personal information of employees and customers/clients.
  • For equal opportunities monitoring and to conduct statistical analysis. 

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly:

  • Where we need to perform our contract with you, or to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation (e.g. our obligations to you as your employer under employment protection and health safety legislation).
  • Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests or those of a third party and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. Those legitimate interests include demonstrating compliance with legal, regulatory and corporate governance obligations, as part of investigations by regulatory bodies, or in connection with legal proceedings and requests, good employment practice and ensuring safe working practices.

We may also use your personal information in the following situations, which will be rare:

  • Where we need to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests).
  • Where it is needed in the public interest or for official purposes.

We may also process special categories of personal information about you as follows:

  • In limited circumstances, with your explicit consent.
  • Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation (e.g. our obligations to you as your employer under employment protection and health safety legislation).
  • Where it is needed in the public interest, such as for equal opportunities monitoring, or where it is needed to assess your working capacity on health grounds.

How long we retain information about you 

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary for the purposes we collected it for. 

Once you are no longer a volunteer or temporary worker for Coton Manor Garden, we will record, keep, and securely hold the information provided as part of your application and during your engagement in our Human Resources files for a period of two years from commencement of your service Coton Manor Garden. This includes your application form, CV, references, contact information, and details of the terms of your engagement, your role, working hours, attendance, pay (if applicable), dates of engagement, any illness records, accidents or injuries.

Retaining this information is necessary to meet our legitimate interests of maintaining work records and good working practice, for dealing with any legal claims and for meeting any legal, regulatory and/or governance obligations.

For those in paid roles, we will destroy your bank details within one month of the last date of your engagement. We will retain details of payments made through our payroll system will for 7 years after the date on which your engagement ends, in line with HMRC requirements.

Retention of your personal information

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary for the purposes we collected it for and for as long afterwards as is necessary to comply with our legal obligations or as is necessary in our legitimate interests to retain it. Therefore, some information may be kept for more or less time depending on how long we reasonably feel it is required for. We have provided information about our retention periods in relation to certain pieces of personal information above. We review these retention periods on a regular basis. 

If you ask us to delete your information in accordance with your rights set out below, we will retain basic information on a suppression list to record your request and to avoid sending you unwanted materials in the future.

Law enforcement

We fully co-operate with the police and other law enforcement agencies. We reserve the right to report to the police or any other such agencies any activities that we reasonably believe to be unlawful. 

Linking to other websites

Our website contains links to other websites which are not operated by us. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources, and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them. The operators of other sites may collect information from you which will be used by them in accordance with their own data protection policy or privacy policy. This privacy policy applies only to our website. We are not responsible for the privacy practices within any other websites. You should always be aware of this when you leave our website and we encourage you to read the privacy policy on any other website that you visit.

Your data protection rights

Data protection legislation in the UK and EU provides individuals with certain rights regarding the use of their personal information. If you would like to contact us to exercise your rights, please contact us using the contact details at the beginning of this privacy policy.

You have the right to:

  • access the personal information that we hold about you in many circumstances;
  • ask us to delete or correct any personal information that we hold about you;
  • prevent us processing your personal information;
  • port your personal information in certain circumstances;
  • not be subject to a solely automated decision;
  • withdraw any consent that you have given. This does not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before withdrawal; and
  • lodge a complaint with the UK regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office, if you have concerns about how we use your personal information. Please see https://ico.org.uk/concerns/to find out more.