Agenda item

To consider the Member motion regarding abuse of elected representatives and public servants, and the coarsening of public discourse.

The Leader presented her motion regarding abuse of elected representatives and public servants in public life. She said the current political discourse at all levels of public life had become more toxic, accelerated and exacerbated by social media, as tragically demonstrated by the murder of Sir David Amess MP. She said the Council needed an annual security review in place in order to protect elected members and proposed the motion set out on the agenda.

Councillor Criscione reiterated these comments and said whatever the strength of political feeling members had, there was a line which could not be crossed. He said this would not detract from holding those in power to account, but it was important that members reflected on their own comments or actions, and that they did not feed into a “cycle of intimidation”. He seconded the proposal.

Councillor Freeman said he supported the proposal. He had experience of a public attack and felt that there was no protection for those in public life. The Council needed to do better.

Councillor Pavitt said the behaviour of those in Westminster was a catalyst for leading a small number of people to abuse elected members. Furthermore, social media had exacerbated this trend and he felt “proxies” were being used to spread mistruths on local social media sites. These people needed to be held to account. He was unsure how the Standards Committee could fulfil this role as it was not a court.

Councillor Lees said information relating to abusive comments would be collated by the Police and repeat offenders would be dealt with.

Councillor Sell said Westminster parties were also affected by abuse and pointed to the imminent report regarding the Online Safety Bill to demonstrate that Westminster was taking this seriously. He would be supporting the motion.

Councillor Barker said she had received calls from members of the public outside of her Ward who had been unable to contact their own ward councillors; her contact details would remain in public. She said dealing with disgruntled people would always be part of the role due to the decision making nature of being a councillor. She felt the motion did not go far enough and asked that legal officers look at the Standards process to ensure it was taken seriously.

Councillor Luck said security should not be left to an annual review but be kept “live” and under constant review. Also, Councillor Sutton should be invited to pick this issue up with the Community Safety Partnership.

            RESOLVED:

I.                 To instruct the chief executive to work with elected members, staff and external partners, particularly Essex Police, to carry out an annual assessment of safety and security of both elected representatives, council staff and the public we serve in the course of our work, and to present that report, with actions taken and recommendations as appropriate, each year to full Council for debate.

II.               To task our Standards Committee, in addition (and separate to) their work considering individual complaints, to consider the standards of discourse in public debate locally focused on the Council, both by members of the public and amongst councillors ourselves, and to report annually with conclusions and recommendations as appropriate for part of the same annual debate.