Gardeners Chessington Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Chessington collects, uses and protects personal data relating to customers and prospective customers within the Chessington area and surrounding locations that we serve. It is designed to be transparent and compliant with applicable data protection laws, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.

By engaging with Gardeners Chessington, including making an enquiry, booking a service, or visiting our website, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.

Scope of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Chessington customers and potential customers in our service area, including individuals who contact us about gardening, maintenance or related services, whether by phone, post, online forms or in person. It also applies to visitors to our website where personal data is collected.

This policy does not apply to the practices of any third parties that we do not control, including external websites or services that may be referenced in our materials.

Personal Data We Collect

We only collect personal data that is necessary for us to provide and improve our services. The categories of data we may collect include the following.

Identity and contact details, such as your name, address, service address if different, and general location within the Chessington area. We may also collect other contact details you choose to provide, such as a preferred contact channel.

Service and contract details, such as information about the gardening or maintenance services you request, property access arrangements that you decide to share, preferred appointment times, job history, invoices and payment records.

Communications, such as enquiries, messages, feedback and any other correspondence between you and Gardeners Chessington, whether by post, phone or electronic means.

Technical and usage information, such as basic information about how you use our website or digital services. This may include device type, approximate location based on your IP address, pages visited, and time spent on pages. Where cookies or similar technologies are used, we will provide appropriate notice and choices where required.

Marketing preferences, such as whether you have consented to receive updates, offers or news from Gardeners Chessington, and your preferences for how we contact you.

Lawful Basis for Processing

We process your personal data only where we have a valid lawful basis under the UK GDPR. Depending on the context, we may rely on one or more of the following.

Contract: We process personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you, for example to arrange visits, carry out gardening services, issue invoices, and manage your account.

Legitimate interests: We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided these are not overridden by your rights and interests. This can include managing and improving our services, keeping appropriate business records, responding to general enquiries, and protecting our business from fraud or misuse.

Legal obligations: We may process personal data where necessary to comply with legal requirements, such as tax, accounting and regulatory obligations.

Consent: In some cases, we will rely on your consent, for example for certain marketing communications or non essential cookies where required by law. Where we process data based on consent, you can withdraw that consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

How We Use Your Personal Data

We use the personal data we collect for the following purposes.

To provide our services, including responding to enquiries, preparing quotes, scheduling and delivering gardening work, and handling follow up visits or maintenance.

To manage our relationship with you, such as updating you about appointments, handling complaints or queries, and administering your account and payments.

To operate and improve our business, including monitoring service quality, training staff, managing risks, and analysing how customers use our services so that we can improve them.

To send you marketing communications about our services where we are permitted to do so by law, and where applicable based on your consent or our legitimate interests. You can opt out of marketing at any time.

To comply with legal and regulatory obligations, respond to lawful requests from authorities, and protect our rights and interests in the event of disputes or claims.

Data Sharing and Processors

We do not sell your personal data. However, we may share your data with carefully selected third parties where this is necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

Service providers and processors: We may use third party companies to help us deliver our services and manage our operations. These can include providers of payment processing, accounting, information technology, website hosting, email services, and customer management tools. These third parties act as data processors and are only allowed to process your personal data on our documented instructions, for the purposes we specify, and with appropriate security measures in place.

Professional advisers: We may share personal data with professional advisers, such as accountants, lawyers or insurers, where necessary for business, legal or insurance purposes.

Authorities and legal recipients: In some circumstances we may be required to share personal data with law enforcement agencies, regulators, courts or other public bodies, when we are legally obliged to do so or when it is necessary to protect our rights or the rights of others.

Whenever we share personal data, we only disclose what is necessary and we take steps to ensure appropriate safeguards are in place.

Data Retention

We keep your personal data only for as long as it is reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy and to meet any legal, accounting or reporting requirements.

In determining appropriate retention periods, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use, the purposes for which we process the data and whether we can achieve those purposes by other means, and applicable legal obligations.

In general, we keep core customer and contract records for as long as you are an active customer and for a period after services end, in line with tax and accounting rules and potential limitation periods for legal claims. Communications and enquiry data may be retained for a shorter period if no ongoing relationship develops. Marketing preference records are kept until you opt out or the data is no longer needed.

When data is no longer needed, we will securely delete or anonymise it.

Security of Your Personal Data

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to help protect your personal data against unauthorised access, loss, destruction or damage. These measures include restricting access to personal data to personnel who need it for their role, using secure storage and systems, and maintaining suitable policies and procedures.

While we strive to protect your personal data, no system can be completely secure. You are also responsible for taking reasonable steps to protect your own data, such as keeping any account information or communications with us secure.

Your Data Protection Rights

Under data protection law, you have several rights in relation to your personal data, subject to certain conditions and exemptions.

Right of access: You have the right to request confirmation as to whether we process your personal data and, if so, to receive a copy of your data and certain additional information.

Right to rectification: You have the right to ask us to correct or complete personal data that you believe is inaccurate or incomplete.

Right to erasure: In some circumstances, you may have the right to ask us to delete your personal data, 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 lawful basis to continue processing.

Right to restriction: You have the right in certain situations to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data, such as while we verify its accuracy or consider an objection.

Right to object: You may have the right to object to processing based on our legitimate interests, including profiling, and you always have the right to object to direct marketing.

Right to data portability: Where we process your data by automated means based on your consent or a contract, you may have the right to receive that data in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format and to request that we transmit it to another controller, where technically feasible.

Right to withdraw consent: Where we rely on your consent to process personal data, you may withdraw that consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before withdrawal.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK data protection supervisory authority if you are concerned about how we handle your personal data.

International Transfers

Where we use service providers located outside the United Kingdom, or where personal data is otherwise transferred internationally, we take steps to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as using standard data protection clauses approved by relevant authorities or ensuring that the destination country provides an adequate level of protection.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements or for other operational reasons. The updated version will apply from the date it is published. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we handle your personal data.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how Gardeners Chessington processes your personal data, you can contact us using the details provided on our website or through your usual communication channel with us.