Cookie Policy
Last updated:
Everything this website stores on your device, what each item does, how long it lasts, and how to change your mind.
This page explains the cookies and similar technologies used on this website, what each one does, and how to change your choices. It sits alongside our Privacy Policy, which covers what we do with personal information more generally.
What these technologies are
A cookie is a small file that a website stores on your device. Similar technologies include local storage, session storage, pixels and tracking scripts, which do comparable things. We use the word cookies below to cover all of them, because the rules treat them the same way.
Your choices
When you first arrive we ask which categories you are happy with. Only the essential category is used unless you switch something on yourself, and nothing optional is ticked in advance. Closing the banner without choosing is not agreement: it leaves everything optional switched off.
You can change your mind at any time using the Cookie settings link in the footer of every page. It reopens the same panel. Switching a category off stops those cookies being used and removes the ones already set. We ask again after about six months, and straight away if we add a new tool to any category.
The categories we use
- Essential (always on)
- Needed for the website to work and to remember the choices you make here. These are always on and cannot be switched off.
- Analytics
- Helps us understand how people find and use the site, so we can improve it. Google Analytics counts which pages are read and how people arrive, and Microsoft Clarity replays how people move, click and scroll through a page so we can find the parts that confuse them. All text is hidden before it leaves your browser, so what you type and read is never recorded, and nothing here identifies you by name. The site works exactly the same with it off.
Categories that are empty are not listed. We do not show a switch for something this website does not do.
The cookies we use
Essential
| Name | Set by | What it does | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
oh_consent | On Heating | Remembers which categories of cookies you agreed to, so you are not asked again on every page. | 6 months |
oh_consent_dismissed | On Heating | Remembers that you closed the cookie banner without choosing, so it is not shown again during this visit. Stored in your browser session, not in a cookie, and cleared when you close the tab. | Until you close the tab |
Analytics
| Name | Set by | What it does | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
_ga | Google Analytics | Tells Google Analytics whether this is a returning visit, without identifying you by name. | 2 years |
_ga_B2ZL95DECQ | Google Analytics | Keeps track of the current visit for the same purpose. | 2 years |
_clck | Microsoft Clarity | Recognises your browser on a later visit, so two visits by you are not counted as two different people. Stored on this website’s own address. | Set by Microsoft, who do not publish it |
_clsk | Microsoft Clarity | Joins the pages you look at in one visit into a single recording, rather than several disconnected ones. Stored on this website’s own address. | Set by Microsoft, who do not publish it |
CLID | Microsoft | Records the first time Clarity saw your browser on any website that uses Clarity. Stored on Microsoft’s own address, not ours. | Set by Microsoft, who do not publish it |
MUID | Microsoft | Identifies your browser across Microsoft websites. Microsoft uses it for advertising as well as for analytics and running its services. Stored on Microsoft’s own address, not ours. | Set by Microsoft, who do not publish it |
ANONCHK | Microsoft | Records whether MUID is being used for advertising. Clarity does not use it that way, so it is always set to zero. Stored on Microsoft’s own address, not ours. | Set by Microsoft, who do not publish it |
MR | Microsoft | Records whether the MUID identifier should be refreshed. Stored on Microsoft’s own address, not ours. | Set by Microsoft, who do not publish it |
SM | Microsoft | Keeps the MUID identifier in step across Microsoft’s different addresses. Stored on Microsoft’s own address, not ours. | Set by Microsoft, who do not publish it |
The seven Microsoft cookies are set only if you agree to analytics, and how long each of them lasts is decided by Microsoft rather than by us. Microsoft does not publish those figures, and we would rather say so than print a number we cannot stand behind. Turning analytics off tells Microsoft to delete the ones already there.
The record of your cookie choices lasts about 6 months, after which we ask again, because agreement given a long time ago is not a good guide to what you want today.
Recording and heatmaps, inside Analytics
We use Microsoft Clarity to record how visitors move, click and scroll through a page, and to build heatmaps showing where people stop reading. We use it to find the pages that confuse people, so we can fix them.
This is part of the Analytics choice above, not a separate one. Clarity answers the same question Google Analytics does, which is how the site is actually being used, so it sits behind the same toggle. Agreeing to analytics agrees to both. Refusing it refuses both. It is described here in full so that agreeing to one control is still an informed thing to do.
Text is hidden before it leaves your browser. This site uses Clarity's strictest masking setting, so the words on the page, and anything you type into a form, are replaced with blocks in your own browser and never reach Microsoft. What is recorded is the shape of the page and how the pointer, keyboard and scroll moved over it.
Nothing loads from Microsoft until you agree to analytics. The Clarity script is not placed on the page at all unless you have agreed to it, so while analytics is switched off your browser never contacts Microsoft because of us. If you switch it off again we tell Clarity to delete its cookies, the recording stops, and the page reloads so that nothing of Microsoft's is left running.
We always refuse advertising storage on your behalf. Microsoft acts as our processor for this, and your information may be handled outside the United Kingdom. Whatever you choose, we tell Clarity that you have not agreed to advertising storage, because this website carries no advertising. That matters for one cookie in the table above, MUID, which Microsoft describes as being used for advertising across its own websites. Refusing advertising storage is what keeps this an analytics tool, and it is the reason it belongs behind the analytics choice rather than one of its own.
Content from other companies
Some of our town pages offer a map of the area. Maps are supplied by Google, and loading one sends your IP address to Google and lets Google store information on your device. That is not something we are willing to do to you without asking.
So the map does not load on its own. Each one starts as a plain placeholder with a Show map button, and nothing is requested from Google until you press it. If you never press it, Google is never contacted and nothing is stored. If you do, what happens next is covered by Google's own privacy policy.
Managing cookies in your browser
You can also block or delete cookies through your browser settings, and set your browser to tell you when a site tries to store one. Doing that affects every website, not just this one, and it may stop parts of some sites working properly. Your browser help pages explain how.
If you use this site with JavaScript turned off
Everything on this website is readable with JavaScript disabled, and in that state nothing optional can run at all. You lose the maps and one or two moving elements. You do not lose any content.
Changes to this page
We review this page whenever we add or remove a tool, and at least once a year. The date at the top shows when it last changed.
- 22 August 2026
- Session recording is no longer a separate choice. Microsoft Clarity now sits inside Analytics, because it answers the same question about how the site is used, and because we always refuse advertising storage on your behalf. Nothing about what is recorded, what is hidden, or which cookies are set has changed, and every one of them is still listed above. Because the choice you were offered has changed, everybody is being asked again: anyone who agreed to analytics but refused recording never agreed to recording, and we are not going to treat the old answer as if they had.
- We also added Cloudflare Web Analytics, which counts visits and page speed for every visitor. It sets no cookie and stores nothing on your device, so it is not part of this banner and your choices are unaffected.
- 21 August 2026
- Added the Session recording category and Microsoft Clarity, which replays how visitors move through a page. It is a separate choice from Analytics and nothing loads from Microsoft unless you turn it on. Because this is a new category, everybody is being asked again: a choice made before it existed was not a choice about it. This page previously said the site used no session recording and no heatmaps, which was true when it was written and is no longer.
- 19 August 2026
- Added the Analytics category and the Google Analytics cookies it switches on, which is the first measurement of any kind on this site. Nothing is set unless you agree to it.
- 11 August 2026
- First published, following an audit of what the live site actually stores. Replaces the holding page that stood here.