Cookie Policy for Gardeners Deptford

Gardeners Deptford cares about privacy and transparency. This policy explains how cookies and similar technologies are used when you interact with content from the Gardeners of Deptford team, whether you are browsing information about planting, pruning, or local Deptford gardening projects. We describe the cookie types we use, why we use them for performance monitoring, and how you can control your preferences.

What are cookies and how we classify them

Cookies are small text files placed on your device that help us provide functionality and improve your experience. We use three main categories of cookies:

• Essential cookies — required for core site functions such as session security and form submission. These cannot be disabled if you want to use essential features.
• Analytics cookies — used to collect aggregated, anonymous data about how visitors access and use content about Deptford Gardeners. These help us measure and improve site performance.
• Marketing cookies — used to deliver relevant promotional content and to evaluate the effectiveness of campaigns related to gardening events or local plant sales.

How we use cookies and the purpose of performance monitoring

We use analytics and performance cookies specifically to monitor the speed, reliability and usability of pages that feature information about Gardeners in Deptford. Performance monitoring helps us detect slow pages, broken links, or errors so that we can make improvements that benefit all visitors. This monitoring is for aggregated performance only and does not attempt to identify individual users.

Analytics and performance details

Analytics cookies collect metrics such as page views, time on page, bounce rate, and resource loading times. We use these data points to:

• Prioritise fixes where pages load slowly or fail to render correctly.
• Identify trends in how people explore content about Deptford gardening and community planting initiatives.
• Measure the impact of changes we make to layout, image sizes, or navigation to improve overall performance.

Marketing and third-party cookies

Marketing cookies may be set by third parties to show relevant promotions and to understand campaign reach for gardening events and resources. These cookies may track visits across multiple sites. We do not combine marketing data with personal data to create targeted profiles without explicit consent.

Managing your cookie preferences

You are in control of cookie settings. Options include:

• Browser controls — most browsers allow you to block or delete cookies via settings or privacy preferences.
• Consent choices — where provided, use the consent banner or settings panel to enable or disable analytics and marketing cookies.
• Opting out — some analytics providers offer opt-out mechanisms that prevent their cookies from collecting data on your device.

Retention and policy updates

Retention periods vary by cookie type: essential cookies are short-lived for session management, analytics cookies may persist for several months to help with trend analysis, and marketing cookies may persist longer to measure campaign effectiveness. We review and update this policy periodically to reflect changes in technology or legal requirements. If we make significant changes, the revised policy will be posted in the same location and will come into effect immediately upon posting.

By using sites and services associated with the Deptford Gardeners community you acknowledge this Cookie Policy and the types of cookies we use to ensure a reliable, secure and improved experience when accessing gardening content and local horticulture resources.