Who we are

Valley Renewables Group (VRG) is a charity registered in Scotland (SC039443) and a company registered in Scotland (SC338213) limited by guarantee without share capital. VRG was founded in 2008 with the purpose to administer community benefit funds arising from wind farm developments in the Carron Valley area. The operating area is as defined by Stirling Council for Carron Valley Community Council:

https://www.stirling.gov.uk/media/3997/carron_valley_cc_2006.pdf

In its activities, VRG utilises information about residents, local organisations, website users, grant applicants and contacts. This notice explains how we access, obtain and utilise this information.

How we process personal information

The personal information utilised by VRG is held on secure IT systems.

Access to information is restricted to VRG staff, and associated IT service providers as required. VRG is the primary controller of the information for data protection purposes.

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

VRG uses several types of information (see list below), mainly accessed via the website or submitted on paper.

For most individuals whose details are held in our records, the personal information is limited to: 

  • Personal details – title, name
  • Contact details – postal address(es), email address(es), telephone number(s);
  • (Where relevant) Job title, employer and work contact details, and links to company websites and LinkedIn profiles;
  • Records of interactions with VRG including grant applications
  • Records of meetings, phone calls and/or correspondence with the VRG.

For some individuals or organisations with whom VRG have interacted, we may also hold: 

  • Bank account number, name and sort code (where provided for disbursing grants, payments for services etc);

Information sources

The information used by VRG comes from a number of sources as follows: 

  • If a user has utilised an online platform such as the website or social media, information will be gathered from any interactions, including contact form and grant applications.
  • Local directories of residents and organisations compiled from the electoral roll and other public sources.

Cookies

Like many websites, VRG’s website uses Google Analytics cookies to measure website usage and performance. In addition, there may be cookies resulting from embedded material, YouTube videos, Facebook, Twitter, AddThis, Yahoo etc. In accordance with the UK Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR), by continued use of this website you are agreeing to the setting and use of cookies in accordance with your own browser’s cookie settings.

Whether cookies are set depends on your browser settings and is always under your control.

Information on deleting or controlling cookies is available at www.AboutCookies.org. Please note that by deleting our cookies or disabling future cookies you may not be able to access certain areas or features of our website.

We take your privacy seriously and any collected information will only be used in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 & UK GDPR regulations. 

If you leave a comment on our website you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Why we process this information, and our lawful basis

We collect and utilise this information for VRG’s charitable purpose, and we use it in the following ways: 

  • Determining community needs and planning and executing community benefit projects;
  • Segmenting individuals into groups, based on the information held, in order to target communications towards those who are most likely to be interested;
  • Publicising current projects and available benefits;
  • Preparing meeting and event attendance briefings on individuals;
  • Maintaining our records to ensure efficient and responsible administration of the VRG Development Trust and compliance with charity legislation.

VRG processes personal information in accordance with our legitimate interests. We aim to keep our residents informed about how our work supports the community. Our Aims & Objectives include:

  • To advance environmental protection
  • To advance citizenship and/or community development.
  • To advance education in the fields of renewable energy, energy conservation and similar areas.
  • To encourage, stimulate and support volunteering
  • To provide recreational facilities
  • To promote, establish, operate and/or support other similar schemes and projects which further charitable purposes

 

VRG processes any information provided for the purpose of grant funding with consent.

VRG processes any special category personal information provided by supporters, such as information about health with consent.

We also process contact details and contact preferences of supporters for electronic direct marketing purposes on the lawful basis of consent.

Disclosing personal information

VRG may provide personal information under contract to our suppliers to carry out activities on our behalf. This would happen in the following circumstances: 

  • To maintain your contact details so that we can keep in touch by letter, email or telephone;
  • To distribute materials on our behalf

On the occasions that we use third party suppliers, we only disclose the minimum information necessary to deliver the service and the supplier only uses the information for the stipulated purpose and period, after which the data is deleted.

VRG does not share personal information with any third parties for their purposes, and would never sell, trade or give away personal details to any other organisation. VRG may disclose information to other recipients when required to do so by law (e.g. when served with a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime).

How long your information is kept

We retain your other personal information whilst the information is relevant to our ongoing contact, or until you update your details.  We retain financial information for a minimum of 6 years for compliance with HMRC.  This information may still be retained without full personal information after this time.

Your rights and preferences

VRG considers its relationship with users to be very important. We will always try to ensure that the data we hold for you is up to date, reasonable and not excessive. You always have the right to: 

  • be informed as to how we use your data (via this privacy notice)
  • access or request a copy of the data we hold about you
  • update your information and/or manage your communications preferences at any time
  • object to direct marketing and other processing, or restrict our use of your information
  • ask us to remove your data from our records
  • withdraw consent, where it is used as a legal basis for processing.

You can contact VRG at the following address with any enquiries or requests about the way we handle your personal information, to manage your preferences or to request a copy of the data we hold about you.

Valley Renewables Group
61 Larbert Road, Bonnybridge FK4 1EN

Tel: 07765 295282

Email secretary@valleyrenewables.co.uk