Privacy Policy

Gardeners Arkley Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Arkley collects, uses, stores and protects personal data relating to customers and prospective customers located in our service area. It also sets out your rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and related data protection laws. This Privacy Policy applies to all Gardeners Arkley customers and service users in the area we serve, whether you contact us online, by post, or in person.

By engaging Gardeners Arkley for gardening or related services, or by contacting us with an enquiry, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy and that your personal data will be handled as described here.

Who we are and scope of this policy

Gardeners Arkley is a local gardening and grounds maintenance business serving customers in the Arkley area and nearby locations. For the purposes of data protection law, Gardeners Arkley is the controller of the personal data it collects and processes about you.

This Privacy Policy covers all personal data we process about individual customers, prospective customers, and individuals acting on behalf of business customers within our service area. It does not apply to information that cannot identify you, such as anonymised or aggregated data.

Personal data we collect

We collect and process different categories of personal data depending on how you interact with us and which services you request. The main categories of data we may collect include:

Identification and contact details, such as your name, postal address, property address where services are provided, and preferred contact methods.

Communication records, such as details of enquiries, correspondence and messages exchanged with you regarding quotes, bookings, ongoing work, and aftercare.

Service and contract information, including the type of gardening or maintenance services requested, site notes, access instructions that may relate to your property, and records of visits or completed work.

Billing and payment information, such as records of invoices issued, payments received, and related accounting entries. We do not store full payment card details when payments are processed through third party providers.

Technical and usage information when you visit our online pages where applicable, such as basic device and browsing details, to help us understand and improve how our services are used. This may include the use of cookies or similar technologies in line with applicable law.

Any other information you choose to provide to us that is relevant to your enquiry, booking or ongoing services, where it is necessary for us to carry out our work safely and appropriately at your property.

Lawful bases for processing your data

We only process your personal data where we have a valid lawful basis under data protection law. Depending on the circumstances, we may rely on the following bases:

Contract: We process your personal data where it is necessary to enter into a contract with you or to perform a contract for gardening services that you have requested. This includes providing quotes, managing bookings, carrying out agreed work, and handling payments.

Legal obligation: We may process certain information where we are required to do so by law, such as for tax, accounting, or record keeping purposes.

Legitimate interests: We may process your data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided these are not overridden by your rights and interests. This includes managing our relationship with you, responding to your enquiries, improving our services, and keeping basic records of completed work.

Consent: In limited cases we may rely on your consent, for example where we wish to send you certain types of marketing communications by specific channels and consent is required. Where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw your consent at any time.

How we use your personal data

We use the personal data we collect about you to:

Respond to your enquiries, provide quotes, and discuss your gardening or maintenance requirements.

Set up, manage and fulfil service appointments and ongoing maintenance schedules at your property.

Communicate with you about planned work, changes, delays or follow-up visits.

Issue invoices, process payments and maintain accounting and financial records.

Manage our business operations, including planning workloads, improving our services, and maintaining records of work completed in the area.

Comply with legal requirements and respond to requests from regulatory or public authorities where we are legally obliged to do so.

Where permitted, send you information about services that may be of interest to you, and manage your preferences regarding such communications.

Data sharing and use of processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your data with carefully selected third parties when necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy and where a lawful basis applies.

We may share your data with service providers acting as processors on our behalf. These may include providers of IT and cloud services used to store or manage our customer records, accounting or invoicing systems, and payment processing services. These processors are only permitted to use your data in accordance with our instructions and are subject to appropriate confidentiality and security obligations.

In some circumstances, we may share information with professional advisers such as accountants or legal advisers where this is necessary to obtain advice or meet legal obligations.

We may also disclose your personal data where required by law, for example to tax authorities, law enforcement agencies, or other public bodies, or in connection with legal proceedings.

Where we engage processors or share data, we take steps to ensure that your personal information continues to be protected in line with this Privacy Policy and applicable law.

Data retention and storage

We keep your personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including to meet any legal, accounting or reporting obligations. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of information and our relationship with you.

In general, we may retain core customer and service records for a period after the end of our relationship with you, to enable us to respond to queries about past work, address any complaints or disputes, and meet legal obligations. Financial and tax records may be retained for longer periods where required by law.

When we no longer need your personal data, we will take steps to delete it securely or anonymise it so that it can no longer be associated with you.

International transfers

Where we use third party service providers that store or process data outside the United Kingdom or European Economic Area, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your personal data. These safeguards may include the use of approved standard contractual clauses or reliance on other legally recognised transfer mechanisms.

Security of your personal data

We take reasonable and proportionate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, and limiting access to personal data to individuals who need it for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

While we take steps to secure your information, no system can be completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security of your data.

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you have certain rights in relation to the personal data we hold about you. These rights apply to all Gardeners Arkley customers in our service area, subject to certain conditions and exemptions. Your rights include:

The right to be informed about how your personal data is collected and used, as set out in this Privacy Policy.

The right of access, which allows you to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you and information about how we process it.

The right to rectification, which allows you to ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal data.

The right to erasure, in certain circumstances, which allows you to request that we delete your personal data where there is no longer a valid reason for us to keep it.

The right to restrict processing, which allows you to ask us to limit the way we use your data in certain situations.

The right to data portability, which in some cases allows you to obtain and reuse your personal data for your own purposes across different services.

The right to object to processing based on our legitimate interests or for direct marketing, in which case we will stop processing your data unless we have compelling legitimate grounds to continue or are legally required to do so.

Where we rely on consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawing consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before the withdrawal.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, services, or legal obligations. Any changes will take effect when the updated version is made available. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically so that you remain informed about how we handle your personal data.

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or how we process your personal data, you can contact us using the details provided on our usual customer communications or business documentation.