PARISH councillors in Oxenhope agreed to hold an extra meeting to make sure they comply with tough new data protection rules.

Councillor Ken Eastwood, chairman of Oxenhope Parish Council, reminded councillors of the impending implementation deadline for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which is May 25.

“We will have some new policies that we’ll need to review and approve, and some decisions we’ll need to take,” he added.

“For example there will be changes to how we deal with things like e-mails.”

Members of the parish council approved a provisional meeting date of May 23 to address the matter.

The GDPR is Europe’s new framework for data protection laws, and replaces the previous 1995 data protection directive.

The new legislation is designed to harmonise data privacy laws across Europe, as well as give greater protection and rights to individuals.

It features clauses allowing people easier access to the data companies and public bodies hold on them, a new fines regime and a clear responsibility for organisations to obtain the consent of people they collect information about.