Who We Are

Wokingham Residents is an independent, community-led group set up by local people who care about how our neighbourhoods develop. We are not affiliated with any political party or with Wokingham Borough Council.

We believe local residents should have a meaningful opportunity to understand, comment on and influence decisions that affect their neighbourhoods.

We use petitions and other forms of community engagement to make residents' views heard by Wokingham Borough Council and other relevant organisations.

Our first campaign

Our first campaign calls on Wokingham Borough Council to introduce a borough-wide Article 4 Direction, so that new Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) conversions are subject to appropriate planning scrutiny before they happen.

We are collecting signatures from residents who support this proposal and intend to present the petition to Wokingham Borough Council in accordance with its published petition arrangements.

Who operates Wokingham Residents?

Wokingham Residents is an independent community campaign operated by Gerry Allan - 31 The Pippins, Swallowfield, RG7 1LW.

The website at wokingham-residents.org.uk is independently operated and is not a Wokingham Borough Council website.

If you have any questions about the campaign, the petition or how the website is operated, please contact us at gerry_allan@hotmail.com

Your information

When you sign one of our petitions, the information you provide is collected by Wokingham Residents rather than by Wokingham Borough Council.

We take the protection of residents' information seriously. Details of what information we collect, why we collect it, how it is stored, who it may be shared with and your rights in relation to that information are set out in our Privacy Notice below.

Privacy Notice

Last updated: 21 September 2026

Wokingham Residents respects your privacy and is committed to protecting the personal information you provide when you use this website or sign one of our petitions.

This Privacy Notice explains what information we collect, why we collect it, how we use and protect it, and your rights in relation to your personal information.

1. Who we are

Wokingham Residents is an independent, community-led group operated independently of Wokingham Borough Council and political parties.

For the purposes of data protection legislation, the person or organisation responsible for deciding how your personal information is collected and used is:

Data Controller:

Gerry Allan

31 The Pippins, Swallowfield, RG7 1LW

Email: gerry_allan@hotmail.com

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact us using the details above.

2. What information do we collect?

When you sign a petition, we may collect some or all of the following information:

• your name;

• your address;

• your postcode;

• your email address;

• confirmation that you support the petition; and

• information relating to the date and time that you signed.

We may also collect technical information when you use the website, such as your IP address, browser type and information about how you interact with the website. Some of this information may be collected automatically by the website or by services used to operate and secure it.

We only collect information that is reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice.

3. Why do we collect your information?

We use petition information primarily to:

• record your support for a petition;

• establish that petition signatures are genuine;

• prevent duplicate, fraudulent or otherwise invalid signatures;

• communicate with you about your signature where necessary;

• administer and manage the petition;

• demonstrate the level of support for the campaign;

• prepare and submit the petition to Wokingham Borough Council or another relevant public body; and

• comply with our legal and administrative obligations.

Where appropriate, we may also use aggregated information, such as the number of signatures received or the geographical distribution of support, to communicate the level of support for a campaign. We will not publish your private contact details or full address.

4. Our legal basis for processing your information

Under UK data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for processing personal information.

For petition administration, our principal lawful basis is legitimate interests. Our legitimate interest is to organise and administer community petitions, establish the validity of signatures and communicate residents' views to relevant public bodies.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we consider the impact that processing may have on individuals and ensure that our interests do not override your fundamental rights and freedoms.

Where we use your information for a purpose requiring consent, we will ask for your consent separately.

5. Who will have access to your information?

Your information will only be accessible to people who need it for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice.

Where a petition is submitted to Wokingham Borough Council, information contained within the petition may be provided to the Council so that it can consider and process the petition under its published petition arrangements.

Wokingham Residents is not Wokingham Borough Council. Signing a petition on this website means that your information is initially provided to Wokingham Residents, not directly to the Council.

We will not sell your personal information.

We will not provide your information to political parties, campaign organisations or other third parties for their own marketing purposes.

6. Will my name or address be published?

We will not publish your email address, telephone number, full residential address or other private contact information on this website.

Where we publish information about the level of support for a petition, we will normally use aggregated figures rather than publishing individual signatories' personal information.

If a petition is submitted to Wokingham Borough Council, the Council may have its own rules concerning the handling and publication of petition information. We will make reasonable efforts to explain to signatories what information is being submitted.

7. How long do we keep your information?

We will retain petition information for as long as reasonably necessary to administer the petition, demonstrate its authenticity and deal with any resulting correspondence or proceedings.

Once the information is no longer required for these purposes, it will be securely deleted or anonymised where appropriate.

We may retain limited records for longer where this is necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims or to comply with a legal obligation.

8. How do we protect your information?

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration or disclosure.

Access to petition information is restricted to people who have a legitimate need to access it.

However, no method of transmitting or storing information electronically can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

9. Our website and third-party service providers

Our website may use third-party providers to provide hosting, website functionality, security, email services or other technical services.

Where these providers process personal information on our behalf, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that appropriate contractual and security arrangements are in place.

We will not use third-party services to sell or commercially exploit petition signatories' personal information.

10. Cookies

Our website may use cookies and similar technologies.

Some cookies are necessary for the website to function correctly. Other cookies may be used to understand how visitors use the website or to provide additional functionality.

Where required by law, we will obtain your consent before placing non-essential cookies on your device.

You can control or disable cookies through your browser settings. Disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of the website.

11. Your data protection rights

Under UK data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal information.

Depending on the circumstances, these include the right to:

• ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you;

• ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information;

• ask us to delete your personal information;

• ask us to restrict how we use your information;

• object to certain processing, including processing based on legitimate interests;

• receive certain information in a portable format; and

• withdraw consent where we are relying on consent as our lawful basis.

These rights are subject to certain legal exceptions and limitations.

To exercise your rights, please contact us using the details in section 1.

12. Complaints

If you have concerns about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us first so that we have an opportunity to address your concerns.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's independent data protection regulator.

You can find information about making a complaint on the ICO's website.

13. Changes to this Privacy Notice

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time, for example if our website, petition arrangements or data-processing practices change.

The latest version will always be published on this page, with the date of the most recent update shown at the top.

Contact

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or the way Wokingham Residents handles personal information, please contact:

Wokingham Residents

Email: gerry_allan@hotmail.com

Website: wokingham-residents.org.uk