Cookies

What is a Cookie

A cookie is a piece of information in the form of a very small text file that is placed on an internet user's hard drive. It is generated by a web page server, which is basically the computer that operates a web site.

The law which applies to how cookies are used for storing information on your equipment (such as your computer or mobile device) is changing on 26 May 2011. From this date, we will provide you with clear information about how our sites use cookies, and how to disable them if you wish.

The information the cookie contains is set by the server and it can be used by that server whenever the user visits the site. A cookie can be thought of as an internet user's identification card, which tell a website when the user has returned.


Cookies and Wirral Council

Wirral Council will not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you. However, if you wish to restrict or block the cookies which are set by Wirral Council websites, or indeed any other website, you can do this through your browser settings. The Help function within your browser should tell you how.

Alternatively, you may wish to visit www.aboutcookies.org which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of browsers. You will also find details on how to delete cookies from your computer as well as more general information about cookies. For information on how to do this on the browser of your mobile phone you will need to refer to your handset manual.

Please be aware that restricting cookies may impact on the functionality of the Wirral Council website.

 

Measuring website usage

We use Google Analytics to collect information about how people use this site. We do this to make sure it’s meeting its users’ needs and to understand how we could do it better.

Google Analytics stores information about what pages you visit, how long you are on the site, how you got here and what you click on. We do not collect or store your personal information (e.g. your name or address) so this information cannot be used to identify who you are. We do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data.

If you would like more information about this product, please visit the Google Analytics website.

The following cookies are set by Google Analytics:

Service: Name of Cookie: Domain:  Purpose: Expires:
         
Google Analytics  _utmc www.wirral.gov.uk _utmc & _utmb cookies work together to calculate how long your visit takes, one to take a ‘timestamp’ of when you enter the site and one for when you leave. The cookies expire when you leave the website (or at the end of the browsing session). On exit
   _utmb www.wirral.gov.uk See above 30 Mins
   _utma www.wirral.gov.uk This cookie ascertains the number of times a visitor has been to web site. 2 Years
   _utmz www.wirral.gov.uk This cookie ascertains where you visited the site from, which search engine you used, what link you clicked on, what keyword you used, and where in the world you are accessing from. This cookie is how Google Analytics knows to whom and to what source / medium / keyword to assign the credit for a Goal Conversion or an Ecommerce Transaction. It expires within six months. 6 Months

 

Council Minutes, Agenda's and Reports

Wirral Council use Modern.gov software to power our minutes, agenda's and reports webpages. The software offers a comprehensive range of features for supporting the democratic process in local authorities and other organisations such as fire and police authorities, housing associations and primary care trusts.

Service: Name of Cookie: Domain:  Purpose: Expires:
         
Minutes, Agenda's and Meetings  ASP.NET_SessionId democracy.wirral.gov.uk This cookie is essential. The technology running most of the website (pages with filenames ending in .asp) sets a session marker to identify you whilst you are browsing our site. No personal information is stored. This cookie is deleted when you close your browser. On exit

 

eCitizen Council Tax and Housing Benefit

Service: Name of Cookie: Domain:  Purpose: Expires:
         
Minutes, Agenda's and Meetings ecitizenReqId rbss.wirral.gov.uk Cookie used by this system to enable it to work correctly. This cookie is deleted when you close your Internet browser. On exit
  JSESSIONID rbss.wirral.gov.uk This cookie is essential. The technology running our self service portal sets a session marker to identify you whilst you are browsing our site. No personal information is stored. This cookie is deleted when you close your browser. On exit

 

Library Ebooks

We use a service provided by Overdrive, opt out http://www.overdrive.com/privacy-cookies.aspx

Service: Name of Cookie: Domain:  Purpose: Expires:
         
Overdrive Ebooks session wirral.lib.overdrive.com   18 Years
  Text size style wirral.lib.overdrive.com   On exit
  expandme wirral.lib.overdrive.com   On exit
  WT_FPC wirral.lib.overdrive.com   10 Years

 

Online Forms

AchieveForms is the market leading e-forms solution for local government. Nearly a third of all councils in the UK use AchieveForms for the creation of intelligent, accessible forms and workflow.

Service: Name of Cookie: Domain:  Purpose: Expires:
         
Online Forms AWSELB wirral.firmstep.com "Amazon Web Services Elastic Load Balancer" - Used to direct your request to the appropriate server. No personal information is contained or used. On exit
  firmstep2session wirral.firmstep.com The technology running our eForms solution sets a session marker to identify you whilst filling out a form. This cookie is deleted when you close your browser. On exit
  firmstep2server wirral.firmstep.com This remembers the name of the server the user is connected to. As we have multiple servers the eForms software must know which is dealing with the request. This cookie is deleted when you close your browser. On exit

 

Online Payment Portal

Service: Name of Cookie: Domain:  Purpose: Expires:
         
Online Payment Portal JSESSIONID ip.e-paycapita.com/AIP "Amazon Web Services Elastic Load Balancer" - Used to direct your request to the appropriate server. No personal information is contained or used. On exit
  firmstep2session wirral.firmstep.com The technology running our eForms solution sets a session marker to identify you whilst filling out a form. This cookie is deleted when you close your browser. On exit
  firmstep2server wirral.firmstep.com This remembers the name of the server the user is connected to. As we have multiple servers the eForms software must know which is dealing with the request. This cookie is deleted when you close your browser. On exit

 

Drupal Content Management System

Wirral Council use Drupal to power Wirral.gov.uk. It is a free, open-source web development platform for building corporate web sites, e-commerce sites and user communities. Drupal powers at least 7.19 million websites as of July 2010 including hundreds of the worlds most prestigious sites. 

Service: Name of Cookie: Domain:  Purpose: Expires:
         
Drupal CMS has_js www.wirral.gov.uk Drupal CMS – this cookie is used to let the web page know in advance if you have javascript turned on or not. It allows the website to serve up content in a more efficient manner by preventing the need for you to download unnecessary content which can be generated or retrieved later by javascript. This cookie also improves web page load times and responsiveness. On exit

 

Cookie Preference Recorder

Service: Name of Cookie: Domain:  Purpose: Expires:
         

Cookie Preference Recorder

 allowWirralCookies www.wirral.gov.uk This cookie records if a user wishes for cookies to be placed on their PC or not. 3 Days