Cookie Policy

We use a small number of cookies on our site to provide some essential features to make it work better for visitors, and to see how people are using the site so we can improve it.

How We Use Cookies

We use a number of different cookies on our site. The list below describes the cookies we use on this site and what we use them for. Currently we operate an ‘implied consent’ policy which means that we assume you are happy with this usage.

If you are not happy with how we use cookies then you should either:

  • Not use this site
  • Change your browser settings to prevent cookies from being set. This may mean parts of this site don't work properly or are inaccessible to you.

If you do not know what cookies are, or how to use your browser delete them or control what sites can set and use cookies, then we recommend you visit http://www.aboutcookies.org  for detailed guidance.

Cookies Used by Our Website

Content Management System

CMS Users Only: The content management system we use to publish our website uses cookies to store some basic, essential data on your interactions with it, such as whether you have logged in. Other cookies tell us if you have previously logged into the website, and are optionally used to remember your login details for future visits if you ask us to.

  • PHPSESSID: this is used during your visit to remember any preferences and settings you might ask us to set, such as whether or not you are logged in. If you block this cookie parts of the site will not work properly or will be inaccessible to you. Deleted when you leave the site.
  • PastMember: used to remember if and when you have previously logged in. This cookie does not store personal information about you, but if you are a registered user it is used to update your personal record in our database. Stored for 90 days.
  • alc_enc: only set if you tick the "Remember email and password for next time" box when you login. Stored for 90 days.

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to collect information about how visitors use our website so that we can improve it. Google Analytics tells us things like what pages people visit, how long they are on the site, how they got here and what they click on. To do this we use several cookies to record anonymous information about how you use the website. None of these cookies record personal information about you (e.g. your name or address) and we cannot use them to identify who you are. The information is only used by this site and is not shared with Google.

  • _utma: tells us if you have visited the site before. Stored for 2 years.
  • _utmb: records information about your current visit to our website, such as what pages you look at. Stored for 30 minutes.
  • _utmc: no longer used for tracking and deleted when you leave the site.
  • _utmz: used to tell us how you found our website. Stored for 6 months.