About our site

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Website disclaimer

The council’s terms and conditions for using this website.

Whilst Reading Borough Council makes every effort to keep the information on our web sites accurate, it disclaims any warranty or representation, express or implied about its accuracy, completeness or appropriateness for a particular purpose.

Thus, you assume full responsibility for using the information on our web sites, and you understand and agree that neither Reading Borough Council nor any of its employees are responsible or liable for any claim, loss or damage resulting from its use.

Copyright

The copyright of all material displayed on this web site including design, text, graphics and the arrangement thereof are the copyright © Reading Borough Council all rights reserved provided that you are authorised to download, print and copy material on this site for information purposes solely but may not alter any of the materials and must ensure that each copy clearly acknowledges Reading Borough Council as the owner.

Use of information

This website contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All content on this website is available under the Open Government Licence, except where otherwise stated.

Cookie policy

Like most websites, we use cookies and similar tools across our website to improve your experience and our website’s performance. This page explains how we do that.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files which a website may put on your computer or mobile device when you first visit a site or page. The cookie will help the website to recognise your device the next time you visit. Cookies do many things. For example, they can help us to analyse how well our website is performing, or even allow us to recommend content we believe will be most relevant to you.

Certain cookies contain personal information. For example, if you click to “remember me” when logging in, a cookie will store your username. Most cookies won’t collect information that identifies you. Instead, cookies will collect more general information such as how users arrive at and use our website, or a user’s general location.

What cookies do we use?

We may use five types of cookie and similar tools across our website to improve its performance and enhance your user experience.

1. First party cookies
   We set these cookies and they can only be read by us.
2. Persistent cookies
   We use persistent cookies which will be saved on your computer for a fixed period. They won’t be deleted when the browser is closed. We use persistent cookies to recognise your device for more than one browsing session.
3. Session cookies
   We use session cookies which are only stored temporarily during a browsing session and will be deleted from your device when the browser is closed.
4. Third party cookies
   We may use third party suppliers who may also set cookies on our website in order to deliver the services that they are providing. These cookies are known as third party cookies.
5. Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting
   We use Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting cookies in order to evaluate your use of the website and compile reports for us on activity on the website.

You can learn about Google Analytics cookies by visiting this site: www.google.com/intl/en/privacypolicy.html

Can you block our cookies?

Cookies help you to get the most from our website, so please remember that if you do choose to disable cookies, you may find that certain sections of our website do not work properly.

How do I disable cookies?

All recent versions of popular browsers give you a level of control over cookies. You can find out how to control cookies in your browser by visiting this site: www.allaboutcookies.org/

More information

If you’d like to know more about how organisations use cookies visit: www.allaboutcookies.org

Privacy Statement

Reading Borough Council is committed to protecting your privacy online.

If you are a user with general public access, the Reading website does not store or capture personal information, but merely logs a number called your IP address which is automatically recognised by the system.

The system will record personal information if you:

• subscribe to or apply for services that require personal information
• report a fault and give your contact details for us to respond
• contact us and leave your details for us to respond

We employ cookie technology to help log visitors to our website. The information collected is used for the administration of the server and to improve the service provided by the website. No personal information is collected this way. You can reject the use of cookies but you may be asked for information again, e.g. to participate in a survey. More information on the cookies we use online can be found on our cookie policy page.

Our website may also use a website recording service which may record mouse clicks, mouse movements, page scrolling and any text keyed into website forms. Data collected by this service is used to improve our website usability. The information collected is stored and is used for aggregated and statistical reporting, and is not shared with anybody else. This statement only covers websites maintained by us (www.reading.gov.uk), and does not cover other websites linked from our site.

For general information about the Data Protection Act you may find the Information Commissioner’s Office website useful.

To find out more about how Council services use and protect your personal information, please see our data protection page.