Perth and Kinross Council has apologised after a blunder revealed the private email addresses of hundreds of people who had registered an interest in an ongoing consultation event.
An update on the local authority’s Local Development Plan was issued to 750 subscribers before Christmas.
However, the message also included the names and e-mail details for everyone who had signed up to the service.
The mistake was noticed by the council’s development plans team leader, Brenda Murray, who issued a follow-up apology to everyone on the mailing list.
She said: “It has come to my attention that this email was not privately sent and therefore email addresses of mailing list members were disclosed.
“I would like to extend my sincerest apologies for this error and any inconvenience.”
She added: “I have reminded all team members of their data protection responsibilities, under the terms of the Data Protection Act (1988), and I will be reviewing our procedures.”
The consultation aims to gather feedback on a review of the council’s second local development plan which will set out a planning blueprint for the region over the coming decades.
The plan was formally adopted in February 2014, but needs to be updated every five years. Among the main issues to be discussed are extra housing, the Tay Eco-Valley plan and city centre regeneration.
Hundreds of homes are planned for the Bertha Park and Almond Valley areas.
A series of public consultation events will begin at Aberfeldy on January 14. Sessions will continue until the start of March.