Cookie Policy

Section 1

The short version

This site does not use advertising cookies, analytics cookies, tracking pixels or session-recording tools. There is no Google Analytics tag, no Meta pixel, no advertising remarketing tag and no consent-management platform selling your preferences on to anyone.

What we do use is a very short list of strictly necessary and functional storage that keeps you signed in and remembers a couple of interface choices. It is all listed in full in section 3 — that table is the complete inventory, not a sample.

Section 2

What cookies and similar technologies are

A cookie is a small text file a website asks your browser to store and send back on later requests. Local storage is a similar browser feature that holds data on your device but is only read by code running on the page, and is never automatically attached to network requests.

UK law treats both the same way. Regulation 6 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 says we must tell you about anything we store on or read from your device and get your consent first — unless it is strictly necessary to provide the service you have asked for. Keeping you signed in to an account you deliberately signed in to is the textbook example of strictly necessary. Counting your visits for our own analytics is not, which is why we do not do it.

Section 3

Everything this site stores on your device

laravel-session and XSRF-TOKEN are set on every visit, whether or not you have an account, because a server cannot tell one visitor from another or protect a form without them. The two __stripe_ entries appear only if you reach the payment step, and the last three only once you are signed in and using the dashboard.

None of these are asked about in the banner, because they are what the law calls strictly necessary — storage without which the thing you asked for cannot be delivered. A form that cannot verify itself, a sign-in that does not persist and a payment that cannot be checked for fraud are not choices we could offer to switch off and still work.

None of these contain an advertising identifier, and none can be read by another website. The three “remember what I did” entries hold a single value each — a true/false flag or the word true — and cannot be used to build a profile of you.

Section 4

How we count visitors, without cookies

We count page views on this site ourselves, and it is worth being precise about what that does and does not involve. It sets no cookie of its own and stores nothing of its own on your device. It creates no identifier in your browser, reads none back, and adds nothing to the list in section 3 — so it is not covered by the choices described above and there is nothing here to opt out of.

One point of accuracy: the request that reports a page view carries the same session cookie every other request to this site carries, because it goes to this site. That cookie is the strictly-necessary one already described in section 3, it is set whether or not this measurement exists, and the only thing this feature does with it is check whether you are a member of our own staff — so that our browsing is left out of our own figures.

For each page view we record:

• the page you looked at, without anything after the ? in the address
• the country your connection appears to be in
• whether you are on a desktop, a phone or a tablet, and which browser family
• the site that linked you here, if any

We do not store your IP address, and we do not store your browser's identification string. Both are read from the request to work out the country and the kind of device, and are then discarded. There is no column for either one in the table this is written to.

To tell one visitor from two we need some way of recognising that several page views came from the same person. We do that with a code made from your connection and your browser, mixed with a random value that we replace every night and hold only for as long as that day's counting needs it. The next day the same visitor produces a completely different code, so we cannot recognise anyone from one day to the next, and the code is meaningless anywhere but here — it cannot be used to follow you to any other website.

These records are deleted automatically after 30 days.

Section 5

Why you do not see a cookie banner

A consent banner exists to get permission for storage that is not strictly necessary. Everything in section 3 falls into one of two categories:

• Strictly necessary — the sign-in session. You cannot have an authenticated dashboard without it, so PECR regulation 6(4) exempts it from consent.
• Functional, and created by your own action — the sidebar preference and the two “I have seen this” flags. They are only written after you, while signed in, collapse a panel or dismiss a wizard, they store nothing but that choice, and they are used for nothing else.

Because we set nothing for analytics, advertising or profiling, there is no consent to ask for, and a banner would give you a choice that has no consequence. We would rather tell you plainly what is stored, which is what this page does.

Section 6

Content loaded from other websites

Some parts of the site fetch content directly from other organisations. We do not set cookies through them and we receive nothing back from them, but the request itself reveals your IP address and browser to whoever serves it, and those providers may set their own cookies under their own policies.

• CARTO and OpenStreetMap (basemaps.cartocdn.com) — the background map tiles on the coverage map. Loaded only when you scroll to or interact with the map.
• OpenStreetMap Nominatim (nominatim.openstreetmap.org) — converts the postcode you type in the coverage search into map coordinates. Only called when you press search.
• Simple Icons (cdn.simpleicons.org) — the brand logos shown next to the platforms we list businesses on.
• Google (google.com/s2/favicons, gstatic.com) — small site icons for partner platforms, and the Google logo on the Google Guaranteed page. These are images only. No Google Analytics, Google Ads or Google Fonts script runs on this site.
• Fena (pay.fena.co) — only if an invoice we send you includes an instant bank-payment link and you choose to follow it. From that point you are on Fena's site under Fena's policies.

Links to Trustpilot, WhatsApp and the directory platforms we work with are ordinary outbound links — nothing loads from them until you click.

Section 7

How to control what is stored

In your browser

Every major browser lets you view, block and delete cookies and site data. Look for “Cookies and site data” or “Privacy and security” in your browser settings, or clear data for this site specifically from the padlock icon in the address bar.

By signing out

Signing out removes the session entry straight away. The sidebar preference cookie expires on its own after seven days.

Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control

Some browsers send a “Do Not Track” or Global Privacy Control signal. We do not need to act on either, because we do not track visitors, share browsing data or sell personal information in the first place. If we ever introduce anything that would make those signals meaningful, we will honour them and say so here.

Section 8

More information and complaints

What happens to the personal data behind your account — not just what is stored on your device — is set out in our Privacy Notice. The commercial terms for our services are in our Terms & Conditions.

Questions about this policy go to [email protected] or 01494 328 588. The regulator for cookies and electronic marketing in the UK is the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF — helpline 0303 123 1113, or ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint. You can complain to them at any time, whether or not you have raised it with us first.

This policy is reviewed whenever the site's storage changes and at least once a year. The date at the top of this page shows the current version.