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Hardy Plant Society

Southern Counties Group

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)*
Privacy Notice

Who we are

The Hardy Plant Society Southern Counties Group is a membership organisation registered with The Hardy Plant Society (HPS) which exists to promote interest in and conservation of hardy herbaceous perennial plants. All members of the Southern Counties Group must, in accordance with the constitutions of both organisations, be members of the HPS. Southern Counties Group acts as the organisation’s data controller for the purposes of the GDPR. Approved members of the Southern Counties Group may act as data processors, in particular the Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, Membership Secretary, Newsletter Editor, Webmaster and Systems Administrator.

Why we keep personal data and our legal basis for doing so

Southern Counties Group keeps and uses personal data in order to run the Group efficiently and to provide our membership with the services they have paid for. To do this, the Officers and others involved in the organisation of the Group from time to time need to know who our members are and to be able to communicate with them. The Group is therefore adopting the legal basis of ‘Legitimate Interest’ to justify holding and using your personal data. The committee is satisfied that it is in the legitimate interests of the Southern Counties Group to maintain this data, that it is necessary and proportionate to do so and that the purposes for which the data is used cannot be achieved in any other, less intrusive, way.

What we keep and what we do with it 

The Southern Counties Group stores and uses your contact details, as provided by you. Those details are your name, address (and alternative address if provided), telephone number and email address. We also have a record of your national membership number, the date you last renewed your membership and, in some cases, the date you joined. We do not keep any bank details. We use the information to keep you informed about our activities and other things that may be of interest to you and to send you newsletters and reminders to renew your membership.

The information is held electronically and is password-protected, with access limited to Committee Members and the Systems Administrator. The Secretary maintains a group list of members' email addresses in Outlook, and the email addresses of current members are also stored on the website; this is only visible to the Webmaster and Committee Members who will act as administrators and will not be visible to general members. 

We record attendance at meetings and garden visits to help us make informed decisions about future events.

Organizers of other specific activities may keep lists to enable them to organize those activities effectively. These lists are only kept for the duration of their usefulness and are then destroyed.

Who we share it with

Other than the website developer, we do not and will not share your information with anyone outside of the group except for the staff of the HPS. A full membership list with all contact details is provided annually to the office of the HPS to ensure that all our members comply with the requirement to be a member of the HPS and to assist in maintaining accurate records. At other times, individual data will be shared with the HPS office on request from the staff or to inform them of any changes.

How long we keep it

We keep your information for the duration of your membership of the group, and for 16 weeks after your last payment becomes due unless you tell us that you do not wish to re-join. If you inform us that you are cancelling your membership all your data will be deleted when your membership expires. 

Your rights under the GDPR

You have the right to:

  • Be informed about the collection and use of your personal data
  • Access the data held (a copy of your data will be provided on request)
  • Have any inaccuracies in your data corrected
  • Request your details be deleted from our records
  • Request that the use of your personal data is restricted.

You have the right to object to the use of your personal data at any time. 

If you wish to exercise any of the rights outlined above please contact the Membership Secretary, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Website Cookies

The website uses cookies. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your computer when you use this website. We use cookies to store your personal preferences such as prepopulating the email box at Members Login; it does not store your password. It does this based on a unique numeric identifier for your computer, not any of your personal details.. We also use Google Analytics so that we can obtain information on the number of visitors and the popularity of various website pages; it does not link to any specific person. Hence Google does not provide us with information on your visiting habits as an individual.

*Regulation (EU) 2016/679 Of The European Parliament And Of The Council of 27 April 2016