Privacy policy

Brendon Orchards Cooperative supports fruit trees and orchards through membership, community activities, courses, equipment hire and related services. We are responsible for deciding how the personal information described in this notice is used.

For privacy questions or requests, email info@brendonorchards.co.uk or write to Brendon Orchards Cooperative, The Greenhouse, Golden Hill, Wiveliscombe, Taunton, Somerset TA4 2NY.

The personal information we collect depends on how you interact with BOC and the activities or services you use.

This may include your name and contact details; membership information; booking, attendance and communication preferences; information about courses or activities you are interested in; order and payment records; and information reasonably required to respond to enquiries or provide services such as equipment hire, pressing, grafting or orchard-related services.

Where relevant to a particular activity or service, we may ask for additional information needed to organise or provide it. We aim to collect only information which is reasonably necessary for that purpose and ask that you avoid providing unnecessary sensitive personal information in free-text fields.

Individual forms and booking processes may provide additional privacy information where this is useful to explain how information collected there will be used.

We use information to respond to requests, administer membership, arrange activities and services, manage bookings and payments, and keep appropriate records. Booking confirmations and practical service messages support what you have requested; they are separate from newsletter marketing.

Where necessary to arrange or provide an agreed membership or service, we rely on taking steps at your request or performing our agreement with you. We retain relevant financial information to meet applicable legal obligations. We rely on our legitimate interests for proportionate enquiry administration, volunteer coordination and website security, taking account of your rights and reasonable expectations. Where we rely on consent, including optional newsletter signup and promotional photography, you may withdraw it.

Authorised organisers can access information needed for their event area, with administrator oversight. Service enquiries reach the responsible organiser. Grafting enquiries also reach the course organiser, Ruth O’Brien.

Prune for You introduces customers to independent pruners. Before making an introduction, we explain what contact and orchard information we propose to pass on and to whom. The pruners provide their services independently of BOC.

Our website hosting is provided through 365i. Our organisational email uses Stackmail through that hosting service. Hosting and email providers process information needed to deliver and protect those services. Membership and course purchases use WooCommerce, with WooPayments for card payments and bank transfer where offered. Payment providers process the information needed to handle the transaction.

We use Mailchimp to manage newsletter subscriptions and send newsletters. Our providers may use supporting service providers to deliver their services.

Newsletter signup is optional and is not required to purchase membership. New members can choose to receive newsletters using a box that is not ticked in advance. You can unsubscribe using the link in any newsletter. We keep the minimum information needed to respect an unsubscribe request and avoid adding you again by mistake.

We use Mailchimp’s open and click tracking to understand engagement with our newsletters. This records information about whether emails are opened and links are clicked. These measurements are not always an accurate record of a person’s actions.

POP booking communications may offer a link to ask the organiser about joining the volunteers’ WhatsApp group. You choose whether to open WhatsApp and send the request. Booking does not automatically add you to the group. Joining can make your phone number visible to other group members.

Some service providers process information outside the UK. Mailchimp processes information in the United States and describes safeguards including the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and its UK Extension, with contractual safeguards where applicable. You can contact us for information about the safeguards relevant to our use of providers.

Our website uses cookies and similar storage to support functions such as baskets, checkout, authorised account access and private booking management. The Google hire calendar loads when you choose to load it. Our cookie notice explains the services used, their purposes, relevant durations and available choices.

We keep personal information for as long as it is reasonably needed for the purposes for which it was collected, including administering membership, providing activities and services, maintaining appropriate organisational records and meeting our legal obligations.

BOC membership includes a £1 share in the co-operative. We retain the core information that we are required to hold about members for as long as that membership or shareholding continues, including where an annual subscription is no longer current. If a member redeems their share or otherwise ceases to be a member, we may still retain information where this is required for legal, financial or legitimate record-keeping purposes.

Information connected with bookings, courses, equipment hire, enquiries and other activities may be retained where it forms part of an appropriate record of BOC's activities or dealings with that person. We do not retain information simply because it might possibly be useful in future, and information which is no longer reasonably required may be deleted or anonymised.

Financial records are retained as necessary to meet applicable accounting and legal obligations. Newsletter preferences are managed separately from membership records, and we may retain the minimum information necessary to record an unsubscribe request and ensure that someone who has opted out is not added again inadvertently.

We may retain anonymised attendance, activity and production information for planning, reporting and historical purposes.

You can contact us at any time to ask what personal information we hold about you, to correct information which is inaccurate, or to ask us to delete information which is no longer required. Some information cannot be deleted while we have a legal or other lawful reason to retain it.

Depending on the circumstances, you can ask to access or correct your information, request erasure or restriction, object to certain uses, or request a portable copy. You can withdraw consent where we rely on it. Some information may still be needed to meet legal obligations or resolve a claim. Contact us using the details in section 1; we may need to check your identity before releasing information.

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/.