Cookies
What is a cookie?
A cookie is a simple text file that is stored on your computer or mobile device by a website’s server and only that server will be able to retrieve or read the contents of that cookie. Each cookie is unique to your web browser. It will contain some anonymous information such as a unique identifier and the site name and some digits and numbers. It allows a website to remember things like your preferences or what’s in your shopping basket.
What to do if you don’t want cookies to be set
Some people find the idea of a website storing information on their computer or mobile device a bit intrusive, particularly when this information is stored and used by a third party without them knowing. Although this is generally quite harmless you may not, for example, want to see advertising that has been targeted to your interests. If you prefer, it is possible to block some or all cookies, or even to delete cookies that have already been set; but you need to be aware that you might lose some functions of that website.
All modern browsers allow you to change your cookie settings. These settings will typically be found in the ‘options’ or ‘preferences’ menu of your browser. In order to understand these setttings, the following links may be helpful, otherwise you should use the ‘Help’ option in your browser for more details.
Cookie settings in Internet Explorer
Cookie settings in Firefox
Cookie settings in Chrome
Cookie settings in Safari
Cookies set by this website
We use cookies to identify you when you visit this website and to keep track of your browsing patterns and build up a demographic profile.
Below is a table showing you the cookies this website sets, and what they are used for:
| Category 1: Strictly necessary cookies | |
|---|---|
| CMSSESSIDa613386d | A PHP Session Cookie: This cookie is part of the scripting language that runs the site, and allows information to be passed between pages as you navigate through the site. For instance, should you use one of the forms, if you need to go back and correct any information on the form, this cookie helps by ensuring you don’t have to type in all the information again. This cookie does not store any personally identifiable information and is deleted when you close your browser. |
| Category 2: Performance cookies | |
| Google.com: __utma | A Google Analytics cookie: This cookie is what’s called a “persistent” cookie, as in, it never expires. This cookie keeps track of the number of times a visitor has been to the site pertaining to the cookie, when their first visit was, and when their last visit occurred. Google Analytics uses the information from this cookie to calculate things like Days and Visits. |
| Google.com: __utmb and __utmc | A Google Analytics cookie: The B and C cookies are brothers, working together to calculate how long a visit takes. B takes a timestamp of the exact moment in time when a visitor enters a site, while C takes a timestamp of the exact moment in time a visitor leaves the site. |
| Google.com: __utmz | A Google Analytics cookie: The Z cookie keeps track of where the visitor came from, what search engine you used, what link you clicked on, what keyword you used, and where they were in the world when you accessed a website. It expires after 6 months. |
| Maps.google.com: PREF and NID | A Google Map cookie: This is set on our contact page when the location map loads. These are unique identifiers given to each computer to allow traffic analysis to Google Maps. Data is only used in aggregate. These cookies persist until they expire, and are then deleted. |
| Category 3: Functionality cookies | |
| addthis.com: __atuvc | An AddThis cookie: This cookie is used by the sharing tool AddThis. The cookie is used to update the share count in the sharing panel when users share a page. No data from that cookie is sent back to AddThis and removing it when disabling cookies means the counts won’t update properly. |
| Category 4: Targeted and advertising cookies | |
| We are not setting any targeted or advertising cookies on this sit | |