How we use cookies

Cookies are small files that our websites place on your device to help make it easier to use. By using our websites, we assume you consent to our use of cookies.

Providing services via our websites means that we sometimes need to place small amounts of information on your device. This is stored in small text files that are known as cookies. Most websites do this to improve how they work and respond to you. For example, cookies may allow the website to:

  • remember settings, so you don’t have to keep selecting these on each new page
  • remember information you’ve given, so you don’t need to keep entering it
  • measuring how you use the website, so we can make sure it meets your needs

Our cookies aren’t used to identify you personally - they just make the site work better for you. You can manage and/or delete these small files as you wish.

To learn more about cookies and how to manage them, visit the About Cookies website.

Necessary cookies

We use cookies to provide some of the more complex functions on our websites. For example, on pages that are more interactive such as those with an online form. In these instances, cookies are essential for those things to work. They don't contain any personal information and can't be used to identify you.

We also use cookies to see how you use our website, so that we can make sure it’s meeting your needs. They can also tell us about things we may need to change to make it better. To do this, we use tools which gather details about the pages you visit. This may include:

  • how long you remain on each page
  • how you got to each page (eg via a search or through our menus)
  • what you click on or tap when you're on a page

This information can't be used to identify you. We don't collect or store any personal details, such as your name, address or IP address.

Name Purpose When it expires
ApplicationGatewayAffinity To make sure your page requests are routed to the same server throughout a browsing session. When you close your web browser.
.AspNetCore.Antiforgery.w5W7x28NAIs To improve security between your browser and our servers as you're filling in an online form. When you close your web browser.
.AspNetCore.Session To maintain session information when browsing the website. This is needed to support multiple page online forms and to remember your progress until you complete the form. When you close your web browser.
ASPSESSIONIDQGDSSAQT To maintain session information when browsing the website. This is needed to support multiple page online forms and to remember your progress until you complete the form. When you close your web browser.
close-cookie-notice Records your consent to cookies and closes the cookie preference pop up. One year
cookie-consent-necessary Records the date you gave consent to necessary cookies. One year
_ga Helps to record your use of the website without collecting any personal data to identify you. Two years
_gat Helps to record your use of the website without collecting any personal data to identify you. When you close your web browser.
_gat_BarnsleyCouncil Helps to record your use of the website without collecting any personal data to identify you. When you close your web browser.
_gid Helps to record your use of the website without collecting any personal data to identify you. 24 hours
nmstat Helps to record your use of the website without collecting any personal data to identify you. 1000 days
siteimproveses Helps to record your use of the website without collecting any personal data to identify you. When you close your web browser
whoson Helps to record your use of web chat against your web chat visitor record. This contains browser information and IP address. 13 months

We also use inferred anonymous demographic data to help us improve our services. To do this we have enabled the Google Analytics Advertising cookie. Our website does not use any details for advertising purposes. For more advice read the Google policy on advertising cookies.

To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites (not just ours), find out about the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.