A councillor locked themselves in their house with their children after receiving a death threat from a member of the public. The harrowing account was heard at a council meeting discussing the effects of bullying, intimidation and harassment.
The Local Government Association (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 meeting of Cornwall Council's standards committee discussed its support for Debate not Hate, a campaign by the LGA which aims to raise public awareness of the role of councillors in their communities and encourage healthy debate without resorting to abuse, CornwallLive reports.
