PARISH PLAN  -  SOME ASSURANCES

CONFIDENTIALITY

The parish planning process involves asking a lot of people to give frank answers to a lot of questions, and inviting frank opinions to be expressed about many issues central to community life. After the project got under way concerns were expressed about the confidentiality of what people may say, and that material gathered for the Parish Plan might be passed on to other agencies. This gave rise to some lively debate at the Annual Parish Meeting.

These concerns demand clear answers. The Parish Plan Steering Group (PPSG) therefore gives a categorical assurance that no information gained through the research and consultation process will be used in a personally identifiable way, and that all survey questionnaires will be anonymised before use. Similarly, written comments from questionnaires and quotes from interviews or discussion groups will not be attributed to a named individual, though there may be reference to demographic information (such as gender or occupation) where it is relevant.

No personally identifiable "raw data" (i.e. questionnaire or other survey forms, recordings of interviews or group discussions) will be passed to any other agency or individual. In discussions with other agencies - such as district and county councils and other service providers - only processed results will be used, and not material which could personally identify any respondent.

Everyone has the absolute right to feel they can speak freely and frankly about the future of their community, and we respect that completely.

COPYRIGHT

The Parish Plan is a project by the community, for the community. As such the copyright protection of material it produces should be vested in the community.

The Parish Plan Steering Group is sub-committee of the parish council (though of course its membership is drawn much more widely than just from councillors), and on the community's behalf the parish council asserts the right to copyright © of all documents, forms and all other material produced in relation to the Parish Plan. Copying, reproduction or distribution in whole or in part by any means and for any purpose is forbidden, without the express written permission of Canwick Parish Council which may be applied for through the Clerk. This restriction includes any Parish Plan material which may be posted on the internet. A fuller statement appears here.

Copyright protection enables us to guard the work of the community, and to preserve the privacy of those who contributed to it. However it is also true that the Parish Plan will benefit hugely from material - photographs, for example - supplied by members of the public. Residents should be re-assured that their own copyright over any such material submitted will be respected, and that, if requested, appropriate copyright attribution will be given to any material used.