Privacy Policy

Gardeners Shirley Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Gardeners Shirley collects, uses, stores, and protects personal data relating to our customers and prospective customers. It applies to all Gardeners Shirley customers and potential customers in our service area, whether you contact us online, by post, or in person.

We are committed to complying with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and all applicable data protection laws. This policy sets out your rights and our obligations when we handle your personal data.

Who we are

Gardeners Shirley is a gardening and outdoor services business providing services such as garden maintenance, landscaping, and related work to residential and commercial customers in our local area. For the purposes of data protection law, we act as the data controller for the personal data described in this Privacy Policy.

What personal data we collect

The personal data we collect depends on how you interact with us and which services you use. We may collect, store, and process the following categories of information:

Identification and contact details, such as your name, address, property details, and any other contact details you provide. Service information, such as details of your garden, access arrangements, photographs of areas to be worked on where needed for quotations or planning, details of services requested, site notes, and job history. Communication data, such as enquiry details, quotes, messages you send to us, feedback you provide, and records of our communications with you. Payment and billing data, such as invoice details, billing address, payment history, and basic transaction information. We do not store full payment card details; these are processed by payment providers where applicable. Website and technical data, such as information you provide through online forms, and basic technical data like IP address and the time and date of your visit, where this is necessary for security, analytics, or service improvement.

How we collect your data

We collect personal data directly from you when you contact us to request a quote, make a booking, ask a question, or give feedback. This may be by phone, in person, by post, or through online forms. We may also receive information from third parties where you have given them permission to share it with us, for example, where a family member or neighbour contacts us on your behalf to arrange services at your property.

Lawful bases for processing

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

Contract. We process data to take steps at your request before entering into a contract, and to perform a contract for gardening or related services. This includes providing quotes, managing bookings, delivering services, and handling payments. Legitimate interests. We process data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, and where these are not overridden by your rights and interests. This includes managing and improving our services, maintaining business records, preventing fraud, and responding to general enquiries. Legal obligation. We process data where this is necessary to comply with legal obligations, such as tax, accounting, and record keeping requirements. Consent. In limited cases, we may rely on your consent, for example, for certain types of marketing or for the optional use of photographs of your garden for promotional purposes. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

How we use your personal data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

To provide quotations, plan work, and deliver our gardening and outdoor services. To communicate with you about your enquiries, bookings, and ongoing work. To manage our relationship with you, including handling feedback, complaints, and service updates. To issue invoices, process payments, and keep financial records. To maintain and improve our services, including reviewing work completed and planning future maintenance. To ensure health and safety at properties where we work, including access arrangements and site-specific risks. To comply with legal and regulatory requirements.

Data sharing and processors

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your data with trusted third parties where this is necessary and proportionate for the purposes described in this policy. These third parties act either as data processors on our behalf, or as separate controllers where they determine their own purposes and means of processing.

Examples of data processors we may use include: Cloud service providers that store our emails, documents, and service records. Customer management or scheduling software providers used to organise bookings and job information. Accounting and invoicing services used to manage payments and financial records. IT support and security providers who help maintain the security and reliability of our systems.

Where we use processors, we take steps to ensure they only process your data according to our instructions, under a written contract, and with appropriate security measures.

International transfers

Some of our processors or service providers may store or access personal data outside the United Kingdom. Where this occurs, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as using providers in countries with an adequacy decision or putting in place standard contractual clauses or equivalent protections, so that your data remains protected to the standards required by data protection law.

Data retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including satisfying legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. The exact retention period depends on the type of data and our relationship with you.

In general, enquiry and quotation information is kept for a limited period to respond to your request and manage any follow-up. If you become a customer, we will retain your service and billing records for the duration of our relationship and for a period afterwards as required by tax and accounting laws and to handle any queries or disputes. Technical and security data may be stored for a shorter period unless needed for security, legal, or regulatory reasons. When data is no longer needed, we will delete it or anonymise it so that it can no longer be linked to you.

How we protect your data

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to help keep your personal data secure. These measures include access controls so that only authorised personnel can view relevant personal information, the use of secure systems to store and manage data, and regular review of our security arrangements.

While no system can be completely secure, we take data protection and information security seriously and aim to minimise the risk of unauthorised access, loss, or misuse of personal data.

Your data protection rights

You have a number of rights under data protection law. Your ability to exercise these rights may be subject to certain conditions and exemptions, but we will always respond to your requests in accordance with the law.

Your rights include the right to access your personal data and receive a copy of the information we hold about you, the right to request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal data, the right to request deletion of your personal data in certain circumstances, for example where it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected, the right to request restriction of our processing of your data in certain situations, for example while we verify its accuracy, the right to object to processing that is based on our legitimate interests, particularly for direct marketing, and the right to data portability in certain cases, allowing you to receive your data in a structured, commonly used, and machine readable format and to transmit it to another controller.

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

Exercising your rights

If you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights or have questions about how we handle your personal data, you can contact us using the details provided on our website or in our communications with you. To protect your data, we may need to verify your identity before acting on certain requests.

Complaints

If you are concerned about how we have handled your personal data, you should contact us in the first instance so we can try to resolve the issue. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the applicable data protection supervisory authority in the United Kingdom.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements, or how we process personal data. Any changes will be posted on our website or otherwise made available to you. We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information.