Privacy notice
Plain English, because you should not need a lawyer to read it.
Who we are
Local Reports is run by Cllr George Martin and operated by Cestrian Digital Ltd (company number 17290507, registered office 1 Ardenfield Close, Radcliffe M26 1UP) on behalf of the Reform UK group on Bury Metropolitan Borough Council. Cestrian Digital Ltd is the data controller for everything described on this page and is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office under number ZC206993. It is not a Bury Council service. If you have any question about your data, email privacy@localreports.co.uk.
Who helps us run it
A few companies process your data on our behalf, under contract, and only to make the service work. None of them may use it for their own purposes.
- Supabase hosts the database and photo storage, in its London region.
- Vercel hosts the website and provides anonymous, cookieless visitor counts.
- Resend sends the sign-in codes and update emails.
- Google confirms who you are if you choose to sign in with Google, and nothing more.
- Cloudflare Turnstile checks that sign-ins and reports come from a person rather than an automated script.
- postcodes.io turns the postcode you type at sign-up into a ward, as described below.
What we collect, and what we deliberately do not
When you create an account we store your name, your email address and your ward. That is all. We do not ask for your phone number or anything about your circumstances.
We do ask for your postcode when you sign up, and we want to be clear about it because a postcode is a small enough area to count as a home address. We use it once and then throw it away. Your browser sends it to postcodes.io, a free public lookup, which tells us which ward it falls in. We keep the ward. The postcode is never sent to our database and is never stored anywhere. We ask because reports go to Bury councillors, who cannot raise anything with another council, so somebody signing up from outside the borough would get a service that cannot help them.
When you report an issue we store what you tell us: the category, the location you drop the pin on, your description, and any photos you attach. Local Reports only takes reports about public places, so a report should never need to say anything about your home life. Please do not include other people's personal details, faces or number plates in descriptions or photos.
To help councillors spot false reports, we note two things when you send a report: whether the pin came from your device's position (a simple yes or no), and roughly how far your device was from the pin, to the nearest kilometre. We never store your device's location itself, only that distance. If you decline the location prompt, nothing is recorded and filing works exactly the same; reporting something from home is always fine.
What we use it for
Your report goes to your ward councillor and their Reform UK support team, who raise it with Bury Council and chase it. Your email address is used to sign you in and to send you updates on your reports. Nothing else: no marketing lists, and your details are never sold or shared with the Reform UK party for campaigning. You can turn update emails off at any time on your profile page, and still see everything in the app. Sign-in codes are sent either way, because they are how you get into your account.
If you choose to sign in with Google, Google confirms who you are and passes us the same two details: your name and your email address. We store nothing else from your Google account, and we cannot see, post or change anything on it. Signing in with an emailed code works exactly as before.
Who sees it
When a councillor raises your report with the council, the report itself goes to Bury Council so they can act on it: what you reported, where it is, and any photos you sent. Your name and email address are not included. The councillor stays your point of contact and passes on what the council say. Other residents who are signed in can see open reports on the Nearby map, but only the pin, the type of issue, the street and the status: not the house number, not your description or photos, and not who filed it.
How long we keep it
Local Reports is currently in a closed test. During the test we keep reports and accounts so the service works; ask at the address above and we will delete your account and your reports without fuss. Photos are deleted automatically 30 days after a report is closed. A fuller retention policy will be published before Local Reports opens to everyone.
Cookies
Only what sign-in needs to work, plus one small preference (which ward a councillor views by default). No advertising or tracking cookies.
Your rights
You can ask for a copy of what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it, by emailing the address above. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk) if you think we have handled your data badly.
Last updated 27 August 2026, to name Cestrian Digital Ltd as the data controller and to list the companies that process data for us. Nothing about what we collect or who sees it changed. This notice describes Local Reports as it works today and is updated when the service changes.