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Cookies Policy

What Are Cookies?

‘Cookies’ are small text files that are stored on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. They allow the website to recognise your device and remember if you’ve been to the website before. Cookies are very common web technology – most websites use cookies and have done for years. Cookies are widely used in order to make websites work more efficiently, as well as providing information to the owners of websites. Cookies are used to measure which parts of the website people visit and to customise your experience. Cookies also provide information that helps us monitor and improve the website’s performance. You can read more about the different types of cookies that we use on this website on this page.

To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set on your computer and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org

Information About Our Use Of Cookies

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. By clicking the ‘I’m Ok with this’ button and continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. If you no longer consent to us using non-essential cookies please see below ‘How To Control Cookies’ to find out how to manage/turn off your cookies.

Our Legal Grounds For Using Cookies

Some cookies, Essential Cookies, we have to use in order to provide the site and the services we offer. These cookies are used on the basis that their use is in our legitimate interest bearing in mind your own interests. We do not need your consent to use these cookies although you can object to their use, however our site will not work if you do.

Other Cookies such as functionality cookies are used to remember information you give us such as your name. The cookies are retained on the basis that they are necessary for the purpose of us entering into an agreement with you. We will delete the cookies when it is no longer necessary for us to keep them. This is usually done after two years. We do not need your consent to use these cookies although you can object to their use.

Other cookies such as targeting cookies and analytical and performance cookies are used for analytical and marketing purposes. These cookies are used with your consent. If you no longer consent to us using these cookies you can withdraw your consent using your browser settings.

If you agree to us using cookies they will contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive.

We Use Cookies For The Following Reasons

Essential cookies – These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services.

Analytical/performance cookies – They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.

Functionality cookies – These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).

Targeting cookies – These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties, such as Google, for this purpose.

You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the table below:

Name Meaning
__lc_vv / __livechat / __livechat_lastvisit / autoinvite_callback / lc_window_state / main_window_timestamp / message_text / notification[status_ping] / recent_window These cookie names are associated with software provided by LiveChat Inc, which enables website owners to talk to visitors to their site. This cookie checks stores the open/closed state of the livechat window
__lc.visitor_id.xxxxxxx This cookie is associated with software provided by LiveChat Inc, which allows website owners to talk to visitors on their site. The root of the cookie name is __lc.visitor_id. followed by a unique seven digit number which is a visitor identifier. The cookie will allow the application to recognise a returning visitor to the website.
_ga & _gid This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports. By default it is set to expire after 2 years, although this is customisable by website owners.
vuid This cookie is used for Vimeo analytics and tracks a unique id for video plays

 

Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.

How to Control Cookies

You can block non essential cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.

What Happens If I Say ‘No’ To Allowing Non Essential Cookies In My Browser?

The website will still work and you will be able to get the information you need from the site but some functions may not work or work as well as they would with cookies.

What Is The Impact For Us?

We use Analytical Cookies to count the number of people who use the site and to analyse how they use it. We do this to make sure that our sites are as good as they can be and this is the primary evidence we use when trying to improve what we offer to users.

If you decline cookies then your site usage won’t be counted and measured in this way so we won’t be able to take your actions into account when analyse data and seeking to improve our service based on that analysis.