Cookies are tiny files that a website can store on your computer and almost every website in the world uses them. Cookies provide very basic functionality that we have come to expect from websites such as keeping track of shopping carts, keeping you logged in to a website or usage statistics for the website owners.
No, they are not dangerous. Cookies are simply text files, just like you would create in a simple text editor. Most websites use them for simple, functional reasons.
A virus scanner can occasionally identify cookies as "malicious" but this simply means a cookie that is used to track you across multiple websites possibly creating an invasion of privacy.
In 2011, the EU issued a new law stating that all UK based websites must gain a visitors permission to store cookies on their computer and inform the user about what cookies are being stored.
The list below shows you the cookies we store to help provide you with the best service available.
| Session cookies | These are cookies used to identify your current browser session, so once logged in you do not have to log in every time you navigate to a new page. |
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| Functionality | These cookies are for simple functions, such as remembering where you last looked on the map so that you are returned there when you go back. |
| Google Analytics |
The cookies here are used by the Google Analytics application. This allows us to monitor website usage, find what pages are popular on our website, where to make improvements amongst other things. The ICO regard these as "minimally intrusive". You can opt-out of Google Analytics by visiting this link: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout |
All information in the cookies we store is anonymous and stores no personally identifiable information.
If you are not happy about having these cookies stored on your computer you can alter your web browser settings to prevent them being stored. Each browser has it's own way to do this, for more information check aboutcookies.org. Doing this may cause parts of our website not to function as expected.
Please note that by visiting this page a cookie may have already been stored on your computer. To delete this cookie follow the instructions above.