Privacy Policy
Last updated: 6 October 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how Initial Designs collects, uses and protects personal information when you visit our website, get in touch with us or use our architectural design services.
We are committed to handling your information fairly and lawfully under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
01
Who We Are
Initial Designs is the trading name of Alex Colley, a sole trader. Alex Colley is the data controller responsible for your personal information.
Address: Initial Designs, New Park Street, Shrewsbury, SY1 2LA
Email: info@initial-designs.co.uk
Telephone: 01743 290391
02
Information We Collect
When you contact us
If you send an enquiry through our contact form, we collect:
your name;
your email address;
your telephone number, if you choose to provide it;
your project location;
your project type and current stage; and
the project details you share with us.
We also keep any information you provide when you email or telephone us.
When you become a client
To provide our services, we may collect further information, including the property address, ownership and boundary details, site and building information, measurements, photographs, drawings, billing details and correspondence relating to your project.
When you use our website
With your consent, we use Google Analytics to collect information about how visitors use our website, such as pages viewed, time on site, approximate location, device and browser type, and how you arrived at the site. If we run Google Ads campaigns, we may also collect information about whether you visited our website after clicking one of our adverts. See our Cookie Policy for details.
03
How We Use Your Information
We only use your personal information where we have a lawful basis to do so:
Responding to enquiries: to reply to your message and discuss your project, where you have asked us to and it is in our legitimate interests to respond, or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract.
Providing our services: to prepare fee proposals, carry out the agreed services, manage your project and communicate with you, as necessary to perform our contract with you.
Planning and statutory submissions: to prepare and submit planning applications and other statutory submissions on your behalf, as part of our contract with you.
Legal and financial obligations: to keep accounting and tax records and comply with our legal obligations.
Insurance and professional records: to maintain project records for professional indemnity insurance and to handle any claims or disputes, where it is in our legitimate interests to do so.
Website analytics and advertising: to understand how our website is used and measure the effectiveness of any advertising, only where you have given consent through our cookie banner.
Portfolio and publicity: to show photographs, drawings and general information about completed projects in our portfolio, website and social media. We will not publish your personal information for marketing purposes without your consent or another lawful basis.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use it for automated decision-making or profiling.
04
Who We Share Your Information With
We only share personal information where it is reasonably necessary, including with:
local planning authorities, Building Control and other statutory bodies, as part of submissions made on your behalf;
structural engineers, specialist consultants, contractors and other professionals involved in your project;
Framer, which hosts our website and processes contact form submissions;
Google, which provides Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics and Google Ads services, only where you have consented to analytics or marketing cookies;
our email, IT and data storage providers;
our accountant, insurers and professional advisers; and
law enforcement, regulators or other bodies where we are required to by law.
Service providers who process information on our behalf may only use it in line with our instructions and must keep it secure.
05
International Transfers
Some of our service providers, including Framer and Google, may process personal information outside the UK. Where this happens, we rely on appropriate safeguards required by UK data protection law, such as UK adequacy regulations, the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or standard contractual clauses approved for use in the UK.
06
How Long We Keep Your Information
Enquiries: if your enquiry does not lead to a project, we keep your details for up to 12 months after our last contact, then delete them.
Client and project records: we keep these for as long as reasonably necessary for legal, professional, insurance and record-keeping purposes.
Financial records: we keep these for as long as required by HMRC.
Website analytics: Google Analytics data is retained in line with the retention settings applied to our account.
07
Keeping Your Information Secure
We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against unauthorised access, loss or misuse. Access is limited to those who need it to provide our services.
08
Your Rights
Under UK data protection law, you have the right to:
access the personal information we hold about you;
ask us to correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete;
ask us to delete your information;
ask us to restrict how we use your information;
object to our use of your information where we rely on legitimate interests;
ask us to transfer your information to another organisation; and
withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on consent.
Some rights only apply in certain circumstances. To make a request, email info@initial-designs.co.uk. We will respond within one month, and there is normally no charge.
09
Cookies
Our website uses cookies. Analytics and marketing cookies are only used with your consent. For details of the cookies we use and how to manage your preferences, see our Cookie Policy.
10
Complaints
If you have a concern about how we handle your personal information, please contact us first and we will do our best to resolve it.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
11
Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The latest version will always be available on this page, with the date it was last updated.