Buckie & District Community Council ("we", "us") is committed to protecting your privacy. This policy explains what personal information this website collects, why we collect it, and what we do with it.

Who we are

We are a voluntary community council representing Buckie and the surrounding district to Moray Council and other public bodies. You can contact us at any time using the details at the end of this policy.

What we collect, and why

  • Contact form — your name, email address, chosen subject and message, so that we can read and reply to your enquiry. We also record the IP address the message was sent from, purely to help us identify and block spam.
  • Memory Lane photo submissions — your email address (used only to send you a confirmation link, so we know the submission is genuine), optionally your name (published as a photo credit if you give it), and the photograph and description you choose to share.
  • Community map suggestions, event submissions and seagull hotspot reports — the details of the place, event or problem you tell us about, and optionally your email address if you choose to give one, so we can follow up. Your email address is never published.
  • Council administrators — councillors and volunteers with access to the website's admin area have an account holding their name, email address and an encrypted password.

We only ask for information we actually need. Where a field is marked optional, you can leave it blank and still use the service.

How we use it

We use your information solely to respond to you, to run the services described above, and to keep a record of community issues raised with us. We do not use it for marketing, we do not build profiles of visitors, and we never sell or rent your information to anyone.

Who we share it with

We do not share your personal information with third parties, except where we need to raise an issue you have reported with the relevant authority (for example passing a persistent problem to Moray Council) or where we are required to by law.

Two technical exceptions you should know about:

  • Our web host stores the website and its database on our behalf, and keeps standard server logs.
  • Map pages load their map imagery from OpenStreetMap. When you view a page with a map, your browser contacts OpenStreetMap directly, which means your IP address is visible to them. If you use the address search on a map, the text you type is sent to OpenStreetMap's search service to find the location. See the OpenStreetMap Foundation privacy policy.

Visitor statistics

If you agree when the notice appears, we count page views so we can see which parts of the site the community actually finds useful. This is our own simple counter running on our own server — not Google Analytics or any other outside company, and nothing is used for advertising.

When you agree, we store a random number in your browser so that several pages viewed in one visit are not counted as several different people. That number is not linked to your name, your email address or anything else about you, and we cannot use it to identify you. We record only the page address, whether you arrived from another website, your device type (mobile, tablet or desktop), and a shortened version of your IP address with the last part removed, so it cannot be traced back to your connection.

If you say no, none of this happens: nothing is stored in your browser and no page views are recorded. You can change your mind at any time using the Cookie settings link in the footer of every page. If your browser sends a “Global Privacy Control” or “Do Not Track” signal, we treat that as a no and never ask.

Cookies

This website uses no advertising cookies and no third-party tracking. We set only essential cookies:

  • A session cookie, which keeps forms secure and allows administrators to stay logged in. It is deleted when you close your browser.
  • A preview cookie, set only if you have been given a private link to view the site before it launches.
  • If you use the accessibility toolbar (the round button at the bottom right), your display choices — text size, contrast and so on — are saved in your own browser so the site looks the same on your next visit. This never leaves your device and is not sent to us.

Because visitor statistics are the only non-essential thing we use, the notice you see asks about that one choice only — and the site works exactly the same whichever you pick.

How long we keep it

Contact messages and issue reports are kept for as long as they are useful to the council's work, and are reviewed periodically. Photographs published in Memory Lane are kept as part of the community archive unless you ask us to remove them. Submissions that are never confirmed or that we reject are deleted.

Keeping your information safe

The website is served over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection. Administrator passwords are stored using one-way encryption, so nobody — including us — can read them. Access to the admin area is limited to councillors and volunteers who need it.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to ask us for a copy of the information we hold about you, to have it corrected, or to have it deleted. To do any of these, just email us. We will respond as soon as we reasonably can.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last changed.