Councillors’ home addresses may no longer be published due to intimidation fears

During a meeting of the governance committee on Monday (February 7), members asked for changes to be made regarding how and when their addresses were published.

At the moment, the county council runs an ‘opt-out’ approach to publishing home addresses – they are included in each councillor’s online profile unless they specifically ask for them to be removed.

The committee suggested that system should be tipped on its head, with an ‘opt-in’ approach taken instead – with those details only shared if a councillor specifically asks for them to be.

The debate came on the same day that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer had to be protected from police outside Parliament from a mob shouting baseless allegations.

Steve Waight (Con, Goring) told the meeting that a resident had knocked on his door one weekend and started waving a ‘fairly large walking stick’ at him during their conversation.

Mr Waight said he felt ‘quite intimidated’.

Sujan Wickremaratchi (Con, Haywards Heath Town) described how a resident knocked on his door at 8am on a Sunday and would not leave for an hour.

Kirsty Lord (Lib Dem, Hassocks & Burgess Hill South) took her address down in November.

She said: “Part of the reason for that is my children are at an age now where they’re at home on their own and I don’t want them to have to answer the door to somebody that could be there for not particularly nice reasons.”

Amanda Jupp (Con, Billingshurst) said she had found it intimidating when people show up on her doorstep without an appointment.

She added: “I’m really disappointed because I’ve always been very open and very happy to have my address published until recently.

“But I think now that there’s too much of a risk and it’s very sad.”

Last year, the Local Government Association launched a call for evidence of abuse and intimidation of councillors.

The meeting was told that, in the first two months, almost 400 responses were received from elected members across the country.

The association reported: “There are growing concerns about the impact an increasing level of public intimidation and toxicity of debate is having on our country’s democratic processes, particularly at a local level.”

Concerns were raised during the meeting about the need for transparency.

It was suggested that, rather than showing a full address, each councillor’s profile could simply state the constituency in which they lived.

The committee’s recommendations will be discussed by a Member Development Group, a sub-group of the committee.

Karen Dunn , Local Democracy Reporting Service