Privacy Policy

HOW WE LOOK AFTER YOUR DATA

1. The Romney Marsh Historic Churches Trust promises to keep Members’ personal information (your data) safe and private and we will not sell it to anyone.

2. The lawful basis under which we hold your personal information (in accordance with current Data Protection legislation) is ‘Legitimate Interests’.

3. Collection and storage of personal information. We only collect your personal details from the Membership Application form or other papers which you complete and we store them in the UK in secure paper files or in password-protected computer files. We store Member’s names and addresses and a record of donations (subscriptions) and the year you joined this Trust. If donations are made under Gift Aid, we store individual Gift Aid Declarations as required by HMRC in order to reclaim the tax element of the donation.

4. If you provide us with a telephone number or an email address, that is stored alongside your name and address. If you provide us with other personal information, you must inform us if you wish that to be similarly stored. If you provide personal information relating to the purchase of any goods, such information will only be stored for a short time to ensure correct and timely delivery of such goods.

5. If you provide us with personal details of any other person, you must obtain their express consent to us storing that information before we can make use of it.

6. Personal information is held by the Hon. Secretary of the Trust, the Hon. Membership Secretary, the Hon. Treasurer and (for church tours only, by the Tour Organiser – for the duration of such organisation). Personal information is held for as long as you wish to remain a Member, but financial information required to allow us to claim Gift Aid tax reclaims from HMRC will be held for only the current year plus six years back (as required by HMRC). Any amendment to personal information should be communicated to the Hon. Membership Secretary (in writing, if possible). If you wish to see what personal data we hold in your name, please contact the Hon. Membership Secretary in the first instance, or the Hon. Secretary. There is no cost involved for you in making such a request. If you request us at any time to delete your personal information from our files, we will comply with your request, in so far as we are allowed to do so by law, within 30 days of receiving your request.

7. We use your personal information to communicate with you with newsletters, our Annual Report, details of special meetings and tours of churches, and invitations to purchase cards, etc. We do not share your information with any other organisation or persons (although the members of our managing Council will have access to your data, on a limited basis, when management need arises). If, in future, we enter into any contract with, for instance, a mailing service provider, we will ensure that their data protection policy is as tight as this policy. We will not transfer any personal information outside the U.K.

8. If we become aware of any loss or damage to any personal information which is likely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of those persons involved, we will communicate with all members as soon as possible (usually by means of postal mail) and we will inform the Information Commissioner’s Office.

9. We do not hold any data on anyone who is a child.

10. To support the lawful basis for our processing activity of ‘Legitimate Interests’, we keep under review the legitimate interests assessment which our managing Council has approved.

11. If you have reasonable cause to complain about how we handle your personal information, please raise such complaint with our Hon. Membership Secretary in the first instance, or our Hon. Secretary, and if you do not receive a satisfactory resolution to your complaint please refer it to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

12. Any amendment to this notice will be displayed on our website (https://romneymarshchurches.org.uk). When using our website, please refer to the notice there regarding our ‘cookies’ policy.

13. To contact our Hon. Membership Secretary or Hon. Secretary, their names and addresses are to be found in our printed Annual Report or you may use the Contact page on this web site.