Data Protection Complaints

How to ask about your information, or raise a concern

Wey Valley Radio (Alton) Ltd takes the handling of personal information seriously. This page explains how to ask us about the information we hold on you, how to raise a concern or complaint about the way we have handled it, and what will happen next. Our Privacy Policy explains what we collect and why.

Asking about your information

Under UK data protection law you can ask us to:

• tell you what personal information we hold about you and give you a copy (a subject access request)
• correct information that is wrong or incomplete
• delete your information, or stop using it, where we no longer have a reason to keep it
• object to our using your information where we rely on legitimate interests
• withdraw consent you have given us, for example to be on our news contacts list or to be contacted about events

You do not need to use a form or quote the law. Tell us what you want and enough about yourself for us to find your records: your name, how you have dealt with us (as a volunteer, a listener who phoned in, a news contact, a competition entrant), and any dates you remember. We may ask you to confirm your identity before releasing information.

We will respond without undue delay and within one month of receiving your request. Where a request is complex or you have made several, we may take up to a further two months, and we will tell you within the first month if so. There is no charge.

Some information cannot be deleted on request because we are required to keep it: recordings of our broadcast output under our Ofcom licence, financial records, and records relating to a safeguarding matter or a complaint while it is open. If this applies, we will tell you what we are keeping and why.

News contacts list. If you are on our news team’s contacts list and ask to be removed, your contact record and the record of when we last spoke to you are deleted the same working day and we will confirm by email. Stories that have already been broadcast keep your name as it was broadcast.

Studio call recordings. You can ask for a copy of a recording of your call, or for it to be deleted, in the same way. Recordings are kept for a limited period and may already have been deleted when you ask.

Raising a concern or complaint

If you think we have collected, used, stored or shared your personal information wrongly, or you are unhappy with how we handled a request, you can complain and we will look into it.

Please tell us what happened, when, and what you would like us to do about it. If you have already been in touch with someone at the station, tell us who.

How to contact us

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: our contact form, choosing “Data protection” as the enquiry type
• Post: Data Protection Lead, Wey Valley Radio, 3 Amery Street, Alton, Hampshire GU34 1HN

Who handles it

Requests and complaints are handled by our Data Protection Lead, Julie Cottrell, who is a Director of the station. If your complaint is about something the Data Protection Lead did, it will be handled by another Director.

What happens next

1. Acknowledgement. We will acknowledge your request or complaint, normally within 10 working days, and tell you who is dealing with it.
2. Looking into it. We will find the records concerned, speak to the volunteers involved where necessary, and consider what went wrong and what should change.
3. Response. We will reply in writing without undue delay and within one month of receiving your complaint. The reply will say what we found, what we have done or will do, and, if we do not agree with you, why.
4. Extension. For complex matters we may take up to a further two months. We will tell you within the first month if we need more time, and why.
5. Cost. There is no charge.

If your complaint shows that personal information has been lost, disclosed to the wrong person or otherwise put at risk, we will treat it as a possible data breach under our Data Protection Policy, which may include notifying the Information Commissioner’s Office within 72 hours, and we will tell you if your information was affected.

If you are not satisfied

You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s independent regulator for data protection:

• Website: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
• Helpline: 0303 123 1113
• Post: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF

We would ask that you contact us first so that we have the chance to put things right.

How we keep track

We record every request and complaint, the date it arrived, what we did and when we replied, so that we can show we met the time limits. These records are kept for two years after the matter is closed and are seen only by the Data Protection Lead and the Directors.

Wey Valley Radio (Alton) Ltd, company number 09822128. ICO registration ZC132136. Last reviewed October 2026; next review October 2027.