Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to your device when you visit a website. Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognises that cookie.
Cookies are useful because they allow a website to recognise a user's device. These websites give for more information on cookies:
Cookies do lots of different jobs, like letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and generally improve the user experience.
Restricting cookies may impact on the functionality of this website.
The cookies used by us have been categorised based on the categories found in the International Chamber of Commerce UK cookie guide.
Lists of cookies used on thurrock.gov.uk and our other websites are shown below, grouping the cookies into categories and explaining what they are used for. These can be set on any of our websites.
Strictly necessary
These cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around the website and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of the website. Without these cookies, services you have asked for cannot be provided.
Accepting these cookies is a condition of using this site. If you prevent these cookies from being set, we can not guarantee your security or predict how the web site will perform during your visit.
Session cookies are set when the site is first loaded by the browser, and are deleted at the end of the session or when the user closes the browser. They contains a random string that is used to identify the user while browsing pages with in the website. Any data that is stored during the session is stored on the web server and not in the cookie.
Our 'My Account' website and services use a product called 'govService', provided by Granicus. It uses a range of essential site cookies that enables the user to remain logged-in, for site preferences to be remembered, and for other essential functions. Granicus does not use analytics, advertising or tracking cookies – go to Granicus: govService cookie statement.
Performance
These cookies collect information about how visitors use a website, for instance which pages visitors go to most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. These cookies don't collect information that identifies a visitor. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. It is only used to improve how a website works.
There are currently no performance cookies set.
Functional
These cookies allow the website to remember choices you make – such as your user name, language or the region you are in – and provide enhanced, more personal features. For example, a website may be able to provide you with local weather reports or traffic news by storing in a cookie the region in which you are currently located.
These cookies can also be used to remember changes you have made to text size, fonts and other parts of web pages that you can customise. They may also be used to provide services you have asked for such as watching a video or commenting on a blog. The information these cookies collect may be anonymised and they cannot track your browsing activity on other websites.
There are currently no functional cookies set.
Targeting
These cookies are used to deliver adverts more relevant to you and your interests They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. They are usually placed by advertising networks with the website operator’s permission.
These cookies remember that you have visited a website and this information is shared with other organisations such as advertisers. Quite often targeting or advertising cookies will be linked to site functionality provided by the other organisation.
List of cookies set on all our websites
The table below show which cookie categories are used on each website.
| Website | Cookies set? | Cookie categories |
|---|---|---|
| Thurrock Council corporate website thurrock.gov.uk |
Yes | Session cookie; User. |
| Thurrock Council 'My Account' website and services services.thurrock.gov.uk |
Yes | Session cookie; User. |
| Thurrock Council 'My Account' council tax and benefit services espws.necsws.com/ |
Yes | Session cookie; User. |
| Thurrock Council consultations website consult.thurrock.gov.uk |
Yes | Session cookie. |
| Thurrock Council committee management democracy.thurrock.gov.uk |
Yes | Session cookie. |
| Thurrock Council housing applications and rents housing.thurrock.gov.uk |
Yes | Session cookie. |
| Thurrock Council planning applications regs.thurrock.gov.uk |
Yes | Session cookie. |
| Thurrock Council payments website civicaepay.co.uk |
Yes | Session cookie. |
| Ask Thurrock young people and families directory askthurrock.org.uk |
Yes | Session cookie. |
Third party cookies
From time to time we may embed content from other sites, such as Flickr and YouTube. When you visit a page with content that is embedded, the web site that the content is from may set cookies.
We do not have any control over the setting of these cookies, for more information you should visit the relevant third party web site.
Third party IP address processing
We sometimes use services such as bit.ly to shorten web addresses that are shared, for example on Twitter and Facebook.
These services provide us with anonymised, aggregated statistics relating to use of the shortened web addresses, for example by telling us how many times each has been clicked on. We do not have access to the IP address of your computer collected by these sites when you use the service, or any other identifiable information about you. Nor do these services have any access to data collected on our websites. Go to the bit.ly privacy policy page for more information.