Privacy Policy

Who We Are

LSH Forestry is a forestry consultancy and woodland creation business operating throughout the north of England. We provide services including grant application support (Countryside Stewardship, EWCO, Trees for Climate, and other Forestry Commission schemes and community forest schemes), woodland design, tree establishment, and ongoing management.

For any questions about this policy or how we handle your data, please contact us using the details above.

What Information We Collect

The personal information we collect depends on the nature of our work together. This typically includes:

• Contact details — name, postal address, email address, and telephone number.
• Land and property information — details about land you own or manage, including parcel references, tenure, and management history, which are necessary to prepare grant applications and woodland management plans.
• Financial information — invoicing details such as your name, address, and bank details where payment is required. We do not store payment card details.
• Grant and scheme data — information submitted to the Rural Payments Agency (RPA), Forestry Commission, or Natural England as part of grant applications made on your behalf, including Countryside Stewardship (CSHT), EWCO, and other scheme applications.
• Professional and legal information — in some cases, evidence of land ownership, tenancy agreements, or identification may be required to satisfy regulatory requirements.
• Communication records — notes from meetings, phone calls, and email correspondence relating to our work together.

How We Collect Your Information

We collect information directly from you through:

• enquiry forms or contact requests submitted via our website
• email correspondence and telephone conversations
• in-person meetings and site visits
• documents and forms you provide us to support grant applications

We may also obtain information from publicly available sources such as the Land Registry, Rural Payments Agency records (where you have authorised us as an agent), and mapping data held by the Forestry Commission or Ordnance Survey.

Why We Use Your Information

We only collect and use personal information where we have a lawful basis for doing so. The main bases we rely on are:

• Contract performance — to deliver the services you have engaged us for, including preparing grant applications, woodland design, and management services.
• Legal obligations — to meet requirements imposed by HMRC, the Forestry Commission, or other regulatory bodies.
• Legitimate interests — to manage our business operations, maintain client records, communicate project updates, and ensure the quality of our services. We only rely on this where your interests and rights do not override ours.
• Consent — where we send you information about our services beyond the scope of your current instruction, we will ask for your consent and will stop if you withdraw it.

We do not use automated decision-making or profiling.

Who We Share Your Information With

We share personal information only where necessary to deliver our services or meet legal requirements. Third parties we may share your data with include:

• Government agencies — the Rural Payments Agency (RPA), Forestry Commission, and Natural England, in connection with grant scheme applications and approvals made on your behalf.
• Sub-contractors and specialists — professional third parties engaged to assist with the delivery of your project (for example, ecologists, surveyors, or tree planting contractors), who are required to handle your data securely and in accordance with our instructions.
• Software service providers — we use the following tools to manage our work, each of which may process data on our behalf: Google Workspace (email and document management), Monday.com (project management), Xero (accounting), and QGIS (GIS mapping). All providers are bound by appropriate data processing agreements.
• HMRC — where we are required to provide information to meet our tax obligations.
• Professional advisers — such as our accountant or legal advisers, where necessary.

We will never sell your data. Any sharing is carried out lawfully and with appropriate safeguards in place.

Where Your Data is Processed

Your data is primarily processed in the UK. Where third-party software providers process data outside the UK or European Economic Area, we ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as standard contractual clauses or UK adequacy decisions.

How We Protect Your Information

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to keep your personal information secure. This includes using password-protected and encrypted systems, limiting access to personal data to those who need it, and reviewing our practices regularly.

How Long We Keep Your Information

We retain personal information for as long as necessary to deliver our services and meet legal obligations. As a general guide:

• Client and project records are typically retained for seven years following the end of the engagement, in line with HMRC requirements and to support any queries arising from grant scheme agreements.
• Grant application records may be retained for longer where required by the terms of a Countryside Stewardship, EWCO, or Forestry Commission agreement.
• Where you have provided consent for marketing communications, we will hold your data until you withdraw that consent.

After these periods, data is securely deleted or anonymised.

Your Rights

Under UK data protection law, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

• Right to be informed — to know how your data is being used (this policy fulfils that obligation).
• Right of access — to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you (a Subject Access Request).
• Right to rectification — to ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Right to erasure — to request that we delete your data where there is no compelling reason for us to retain it.
• Right to restrict processing — to ask us to limit how we use your data in certain circumstances.
• Right to data portability — to receive your data in a structured, commonly used format.
• Right to object — to object to processing based on legitimate interests, or to direct marketing.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details above. We will respond within one calendar month.

Our Website and Cookies

Our website may collect limited technical data through standard web analytics (such as anonymised visitor statistics). If you submit an enquiry via a contact form, the information you provide will be used only to respond to your enquiry.

We do not use advertising cookies or sell data to third parties in connection with website usage. Where cookies are used for analytics, we will notify you and seek your consent in accordance with applicable rules.

How to Make a Complaint

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, please contact us in the first instance so that we can try to resolve the matter.

If you remain unsatisfied, you have the right to complain to the UK's data protection regulator: