Council apologises for 'human error' in publishing personal email addresses of residents

The council has apologised for the ‘human error’ in publishing the personal email addresses of objectors to the disposal of land at Braywick Park – but said the incident does not amount to a data breach.

Documents were uploaded to the council’s website last night (December 5) ahead of a cabinet meeting at York House in Windsor next week.

The sixth item on the meeting agenda is a review of the cabinet decision to not dispose of the open space land at Braywick Park in Maidenhead.

The decision taken on July 27 will be reconsidered following two resident-led petitions garnering thousands of signatures.

Amongst the eight supporting documents uploaded online yesterday, one appendix outlined all 22 objections received to the Open Space Disposal notice published in April 2022.  

The objectors raised concerns about the plans for the disposal of land at Braywick Park primarily due to the loss of public green space in Maidenhead.

Whilst the names of the objectors were entirely redacted, their personal email addresses remained visible.

After concerns were raised, the council removed Appendix F from the council website this morning (December 6) and has since issued a statement.

A council spokesperson said: “On the open spaces notice first published last year, objectors were advised their details might be made public along with their objections.

“While this is not a data breach, we accept the council hadn’t originally intended to disclose those email addresses with the cabinet papers and we apologise for the human error in this case.

“The cabinet papers were added to the website at 6.46pm on Tuesday and the appendix was removed early on Wednesday morning - as soon as the council became aware.

“We’ve also taken steps to reduce the risk of a similar mistake in future and we’ve apologised to all concerned. Now fully redacted, the appendix has been added again to the website.”