FAQ

Discuss your plan with your neighbours and the local police. Your neighbours must agree to participate and support the Watch. Then, you and your neighbours need to appoint a coordinator(s) whose job is to get scheme members working together.

Coordinators and members regularly talk about crime and disorder problems in the neighbourhood and how to best tackle them. Coordinators also stay in close contact with the local police to share information and to seek advice. The role, although not overly demanding is important as a Watch coordinator may be the only way to reach the elderly and vulnerable people on their Watch. 

The Neighbourhood Watch Network (NWN) is the national body representing Neighbourhood Watch. London Community Watch is the London body that supports every London resident.

Data Controller and Purpose

The information you provide will be used by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets’ Public Realm, to process your request. The service is provided jointly with the council’s waste and cleansing contractor “Veolia” under the statutory responsibility the council holds to collect and manage waste within the borough and Tower Hamlets Council is the Data Controller.

We have received your requests which may be accompanied with personal information such as name, address and contact details from your use of our waste collection service and will use this for data processing which will allow us to make improvements.

We process your data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and if you have any concerns the council’s Data Protection Officer can be contacted on DPO@towerhamlets.gov.uk.

Condition for Processing Personal Data

It is necessary for us to process your personal data (name and contact details), under the GDPR as a task carried out in the public interest / for the performance of a contract / for compliance with a legal obligation/with consent], and more personal data (health, personal and household circumstances) as necessary for (substantial public interest reasons / preventative or occupational medicine / public health).

A delay in you providing the information requested may result in a delay in providing appropriate services.

How long do we keep your information?

We will only hold your information for as long as is required by law and to provide you with the necessary services. This is likely to be for seven years after the case is closed. For further details, you can view our Retention Schedule.

We may also anonymise some personal data you provide to us to ensure that you cannot be identified and use this for statistical analysis of data to allow the council to effectively target and plan the provision of services.

Information sharing

Your personal information may be shared with internal departments or with external partners and agencies involved in delivering services on our behalf. As stated above this will include some personal information such as names and contact details if necessary to your request. The council has a duty to protect public funds and may use personal information and data-matching techniques to detect and prevent fraud, and ensure public money is targeted and spent in the most appropriate and cost effective way. Information may be shared with internal services and external bodies like the Audit Commission, Department for Work and Pensions, other local authorities, HM Revenue and Customs, and the Police. This activity is carried out under social protection law.

We have a duty to improve the health of the population we serve. To help with this, we use data and information from a range of sources including hospitals to understand more about the nature and causes of disease and ill-health in the area. This data would normally be anonymised and never used to make decisions on a specific individual or family.

Your rights

You can find out more about your rights on our Data Protection page and how to complain to the Information Commissioner.