This page explains what cookies are, why we use them on this website, and how you can opt out of having cookies stored on your computer.
What is a cookie?
A cookie is simply a small text file that is sent from a website to your computer (or mobile device) when you visit certain web pages.
A cookie is not a program, and doesn’t actually do anything itself. In its most basic form a cookie just stores the name of the website you visited, and a unique user ID. It cannot be used to identify you personally.
How do cookies work?
The very first time you visit a website, a cookie is downloaded to your computer. The next time you visit, your computer checks to see if it has a cookie for that site, and if it does, it sends the information back to the website.
The website then ‘knows’ that you have visited before, and in some cases can tailor its content to take account of that fact.
For example, you might visit a site and decide you want to view it with a larger text size. The next time you visit, if this information has been stored in a cookie, the website will ‘know’ your preferences and automatically set the text to a larger size.
What we use cookies for
We use cookies to collect non-personal information about how visitors use this site. We only collect information that helps us to provide and manage a useful and efficient web service. More specifically, we use cookies:
To note whether you opted in or out of our online survey (so we don’t keep asking you)
To count how many visitors use this site (so our web servers can meet the demand)
To analyse how visitors search for and find information, to improve navigation and usability
In-house cookies
We use cookies with our in-house web services to make our site easier to use. When you search for an address using our online mapping and view planning applications online services, that information is stored for the duration of your web session, or until you enter another address. This means that if you navigate away from the search pages, then return to them, you don’t need to re-enter the same address information – it will be saved for the duration of your session on our site.
Tracking cookies
We use cookies with two external services which directly help us to manage the level of demand on this site and ensure visitors can find what they are looking for.
Like many websites, we use Google Analytics to track how many visitors use our site, what search terms they use, what pages they visit and how they find them. This service sets four cookies on your computer (named utma, utmb, utmc and utmz).
To opt out of Google Analytics, you can use the analytics opt out browser add-on.
Other third-party cookies
We may use third-party services to provide enhanced functionality on this site, such as YouTube to embed videos. Cookies are used by each of these services to track levels of usage.
To opt out of having cookies set by these services please see the relevant cookie and privacy policies on their respective websites.
To opt out of using cookies
We recommend that you allow the cookies we set on this site, as they help us provide a better service and make our website easier to use.
But if you don’t want cookies to be stored on your computer, you can easily set your web browser to block them. Just go to the privacy settings in your browser options, and enter our domain (www.lancasterandmorecambebay.com) in the list of websites you do not want to accept cookies from.
For a simple guide to managing and opting out of cookies on all sites you visit, whatever browser you use, please see how to manage cookies.
Any questions?
If you have any questions about the cookies used on this website and how you can manage them, please contact Lancaster City Council at tourism@lancaster.gov.uk.
