Change in policy after Cornwall councillor receives death threat

A Cornwall councillor locked themselves in their house with their children after receiving a death threat from a member of the public, fellow members heard during a debate about the effects of bullying, intimidation, and harassment.

A meeting of Cornwall Council's standards committee on Thursday, April 27, discussed its support for Debate not Hate, a campaign by the Local Government Association (LGA) which aims to raise public awareness of the role of councillors in their communities and encourage healthy debate without resorting to abuse.

The LGA has called on the Government to work with local councils to "urgently address toxic discourse and abuse against councillors or risk long-term impacts on local democracy and representation". It said that some councillors feel vulnerable as they are often encouraged to publish their home addresses and has called for a change so that they can proactively withhold their addresses from the public register.

A report by a working group of Cornish councillors set up to tackle harassment stated: "Whilst elected officials may have always received unwarranted criticism, this is something which has been on the increase in the last few years and these acts of bullying, intimidation and harassment can be extremely distressing to those who are subject to them."

As a result, councillors agreed that their home addresses should be treated as a "sensitive interest" and no longer be printed publicly.

Jayne Kirkham, leader of the Labour group at Cornwall Council, told fellow councillors via a statement: "One member received a death threat and their family home was easily visible on the website. They had to lock themselves in the house with their children. I want to make the case strongly for members' addresses NOT to be publicly available as the default – for real safety reasons. So if you WANT your address on the website you request it, rather than vice versa."

Cllr Andrew Long, deputy group leader for the Mebyon Kernow/Green group, told the meeting he had been the victim of bullying in the workplace and "knows what it feels like not sleeping on a Sunday night" and how damaging bullying, abuse, and harassment can be.

He added it should be a matter of course that councillors' addresses were not published in the public domain and there should be clear and simple advice for councillors on reporting abuse from members of the public.

He said: "Society has changed dramatically in the last decade. Since Covid, there is less degree of patience. There was a situation in Newquay recently where protesters were wearing masks because protesters on the other side were finding out where they lived and threatening them."

Cllr Long added the council could not remove the problem of harassment but it should do all it could to mitigate it. "We should protect councillors the best we can," he said, adding he believed that when a councillor held a public surgery they should be accompanied by a second person for support.

Following an amendment suggested by Cllr Loveday Jenkin, members agreed that councillors' home addresses should not be published as a matter of course, though individuals could agree to have their details published if they wanted to. Councillors also agreed there should be a single point of contact at the council for reporting bullying, intimidation and harassment, as well as a police contact for the council to report serious issues.

Members also agreed the chairman should write to Cornwall's MPs asking that they support the council's endeavours to assist councillors and support the LGA's Debate not Hate campaign.

Cornwall councillors revealed last year how they have been subjected to abuse, threats and intimidation including threats of violence and sick messages.

One senior Conservative councillor said: "It is from social media really. It stops me wanting to tell the story about what is going on and letting people know what the council is doing for them. You end up not putting up as much as you want (on social media) – you are not going to get up in the ring if you are going to get a smack in the face each time. We always get this nonsense from people about brown envelopes, it's just annoying as we want to let people know what the council is doing but we get this negativity all the time."

The councillor said they were less likely to go out for a drink in their local town as they knew they were likely to get collared by people who want to take issue with council decisions. "I am quite wary about going out (in their town) – you start to get bombarded with questions. I am happy to chat with people but sometimes it goes further than that. I don't think councillors have it as bad as the MPs, but we are on edge as there have been a couple of MPs murdered.

"I do worry about the impact on other councillors – I am quite thick skinned but some are not as robust and could be quite vulnerable. You do also worry about your family and whether some of the threats online could become real. It is just lazy people who are sat at home with too much time on their hands. Facebook is like a bearpit."

A councillor who received a message suggesting they die said they had experienced threats and intimidation in the eight years since they were first elected. However, they said that it was all through electronic messages and social media. Asked whether it had made them regret standing for election they said: "No, it's made me more determined to stay and do my job. The numbers of people who vote for me and the generally positive reaction I get means that hopefully I'm doing a decent job of it."

Another councillor said they had experienced abuse in person, citing: "I have been shouted many times at in public, even on days off just walking down the road to my house. I have a couple of persistent complainers who shout at me on sight or email spurious complaints demanding my resignation frequently."

One councillor said he had received abuse from the Gypsy and traveller community after planning application decisions went against them – he claimed they had threatened to burn his house down. He said: "I get abuse constantly, mainly from the Gypsy and traveller type of people, they have threatened me on numerous occasions, they have threatened to burn my house down, beat me up. Members of our parish council have been threatened and abused on many occasions as well."

The councillor said he was most concerned when threats are made against his family but that most of the time he pays no attention to the threats. "I have been called a racist and all sorts of stuff because we have turned down a planning application. I have been accused of taking brown envelopes and bribes and I just wonder, have these people seen the car I drive? Have they seen where I live? If I do take bribes then I want to know where the money is because it definitely isn't in my bank account."

They said that several parish councillors had walked away from their roles due to the threats and intimidation but said they would not be defeated by it. Another councillor said that they and their family had been left upset after they were falsely accused of having an affair by a disgruntled member of the public.