Privacy Policy and Accessibility Statement
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1. Privacy Policy
General Privacy and Use Policy
Rusthall Parish Council cares to ensure the security of personal data. This is done through appropriate technical measures and relevant policies. Data is kept for the purpose it was collected for and only for as long as necessary. (See our Retention of Documents and Correspondence Policy August 2021 online at:
https://www.rusthallparishcouncil.org.uk/community/rusthall-parish-council-13134/policydocuments/ for further information).
Website Privacy and Use Policy
This privacy policy is for this website and governs the privacy of its users who choose to use it. It explains how we comply with the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), the DPA (Data Protection Act) [pre GDPR enforcement] and the PECR (Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations). This policy will explain areas of this website that may affect your privacy and personal details, how we process, collect, manage and store those details and how your rights under the GDPR, DPA & PECR are adhered to.
Additionally, it will explain the use of cookies or software, advertising or commercial sponsorship from third parties and the download of any documents, files or software made available to you (if any) on this website. Further explanations may be provided for specific pages or features of this website to help you understand how this website and its third parties (if any) interact with you and your computer / device. Please contact us by email if you have any questions.
Use of Cookies
This website uses cookies to improve the users experience while visiting the website. As required by legislation, where applicable this website uses a cookie control system, allowing the user to give explicit permission or to deny the use of /saving of cookies on their computer / device.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small files saved to a website users computer / device that track, save and store information about the user's interactions and usage of the website. This allows the website to provide the users with a more tailored experience. Users are advised that if they wish to deny the use and saving of cookies from this website on to their computers hard drive they should take necessary steps within their web browsers security settings to block all cookies from this website and its external serving vendors or use the cookie control system if available upon their first visit.
Website Visitor Tracking
This website may use tracking software to better understand how it is being used. The software will save a cookie to your computer's hard drive to track and monitor your engagement and usage of the website, but will not store, save or collect personal information.
Adverts and Sponsored Links
This website may contain sponsored links and adverts. These will typically be served through third party organisations, who may have detailed privacy policies relating directly to the adverts they serve. Clicking on any such sponsored links or adverts will send you to the advertisers’ website through a referral program which may use cookies and will track the number of referrals sent from this website. This may include the use of cookies which may in turn be saved on your computer’s hard drive. Users should therefore note they click on sponsored external links at their own risk and we cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any external links mentioned.
Downloads
Any downloadable documents, files or media made available on this website are provided to users at their own risk. While all precautions have been undertaken to ensure only genuine downloads are available, users are advised to verify their authenticity using third party antivirus software or similar applications. We accept no responsibility for third party downloads and downloads provided by external third party websites and advise users to verify their authenticity using third party anti-virus software or similar applications.
Contact & Communication with Us
Users contacting us through this website do so at their own discretion and provide any such personal details requested at their own risk. Your personal information is kept private and stored securely until a time it is no longer required or has no use. Where we have clearly stated and made you aware of the fact, and where you have given your express permission, we may use your details to send you additional information through a mailing list system. This is done in accordance with the regulations named in 'The policy' above.
Email Mailing List & Marketing Messages
We operate an email mailing list program ('Email Alerts'), used to inform subscribers about events, services and/or news we supply/publish. Users can subscribe to Email Alerts through an online automated process where they have given their explicit permission. The Email Alerts service is provided by HugoFox Ltd (www.hugofox.com). Subscriber personal details are collected, processed, managed and stored on behalf of us by HugoFox Ltd in accordance with the regulations named in 'The policy' above. Subscribers can unsubscribe at any time through an automated online service, or if not available, by other means as detailed in individual messages sent. The type and content of marketing messages subscribers receive is clearly outlined at the point of subscription.
Our Email Alerts service partner is HugoFox Ltd (www.hugofox.com), and you can read their privacy policy in at: https://www.hugofox.com/privacy . The service is automated and no personal data is accessed by them should you use the service.
External Website Links & Third Parties
Although we only look to include quality, safe and relevant external links, users are advised to adopt a policy of caution before clicking any external web links mentioned throughout this website. Shortened URL's - URL shortening is a technique used on the web to shorten URL's (Uniform Resource Locators) to something substantially shorter. This technique is especially used in social media and looks like this (example: http://bit.ly/zyVUBo). Users should take caution before clicking on shortened URL links and verify their authenticity before proceeding. We cannot guarantee or verify the contents of any externally linked website. Users should therefore note they click on external links at their own risk and we cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any external links mentioned.
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2. Accessibility Statement
Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No.2) Accessibility Regulations 2018
The Regulations came into force on 23 September 2018 and implement the EU Directive on the accessibility of websites and mobile apps of public sector bodies. The purpose is to improve the accessibility of public sector websites (including Parish Council sites) so that they can be used by as many people as possible – this builds on the existing obligations to disabled people under the Equality Act 2010 and the duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people.
Accessibility Statement for Rusthall Parish Council Website
This website is run by Rusthall Parish Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. The website layout and text has been made as simple as possible to understand. Visitors should be able to navigate the website using just a mouse, mouse pointer and keyboard. The government has produced an excellent guide for disabled computer users.
This can be found at AbilityNet (https://mcmw.abilitynet.org.uk/) It has detailed advice on making your device easier to use. This covers such things as making your screen images and text larger, using a text reader to convert text to sound, using Voice Recognition to control your computer, increasing mouse pointer sizes etc.
Technical Information about this website’s accessibility
Rusthall Parish Council is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard. Following a detailed examination of our website’s features against the detailed government checklist we have identified some areas where we are not fully compliant:
- It is not possible to navigate the website purely by keyboard
- There is only one way to find content (i.e. no search engine)
- ARIA* (see below for definition) markup has not been used
- Where extra content is shown or hidden on focus, it cannot be dismissed, interacted with (and not disappear when the user moves to it) and does not stay visible until dismissed by the user.
These items have been discussed with our Website designers who are currently working on a rebuild which will incorporate ARIA markup standards and make us fully compliant.
Document Non-Compliances
Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards – for example they may not be structured so they are accessible to a screen reader.
The cost of ensuring all Assistive technologies can be used to access the website is a disproportionate burden.
What we are doing to improve accessibility
Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.
How we tested this website
The website was tested on 28th September 2020. The test was carried out by Jeff Manning. We used the WCAG2.1 level AA Primer published by Gov.UK as our checklist. A copy of the checklist questions and the responses are shown as the end of this statement.
The website was tested on 3 different browsers, IOS (IPhone) Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome.
The WAVE evaluation tool was used to evaluate the website and it identified the following errors:
- Errors 151
- Low Contrast Errors 1,761
All the above errors have been fixed.
WAVE also identified the following issues:
- Alerts 211
- Features 348
- Structural Elements 1,286
- ARIA 4,278
The cost of manually evaluating the above issues is a disproportionate burden.
What to do if you cannot access part of this website
If you need information on this website in a different format like PDF, large print etc. please contact the Clerk to Rusthall Parish Council. Email clerk1@rusthallparishcouncil.org.uk or telephone 01892 520161. We will consider your request and get back to you in 10 working days.
If you cannot view the map on our ‘Contact’ page, please contact the Clerk for directions.
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We are always looking to improve the accessibility of our website. If you find any problems that are not already listed, or you think we are not meeting the accessibility requirements, pleas contact the Clerk to Rusthall Parish Council. Email clerk1@rusthallparishcouncil.org.uk or telephone 01892 520161.
Enforcement Procedure
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’ If you are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) (https://www.equalityadvisoryservice.com/).
Definition of ARIA
WAI-ARIA, the Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite, defines a way to make Web content and Web applications more accessible to people with disabilities. It especially helps with dynamic content and advanced user interface controls developed with Ajax, HTML, JavaScript, and related technologies. Currently, certain functionality used in Web sites is not available to some users with disabilities, especially people who rely on screen readers and people who cannot use a mouse. WAI-ARIA addresses these accessibility challenges, for example, by defining new ways for functionality to be provided to assistive technology. With WAI-ARIA, developers can make advanced Web applications accessible and usable to people with disabilities.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 29th September 2020. It was last reviewed on 28th September 2021.