Northumberland county councillors are set to be consulted on new plans that could see their addresses hidden from their official register of interests.
Declarations of interests are public documents which include any land the councillor holds within the county, including the address of any property they live in.
However, the issue of members' safety has become paramount in recent years following attacks on elected officials in other parts of the country. As such, the council has suggested that a dispensation could be applied allowing members to hide their addresses.
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A report presented to members said there was a "mechanism" in the Localism Act 2011 to exclude sensitive interests from the authority's register where it would be considered that publishing it could lead to either the councillor or someone connected with them being "subject to violence or intimidation".
Coun Trevor Cessford, who represents Hexham Central with Acomb, said he knew of one local councillor who had received an unwelcome visitor to their home as a result of having their address online.
He said: "I'm aware of a local councillor who was visited by somebody known to the people in this chamber. That is certainly not appropriate. It should be an individual thing, it should be a personal choice."
Labour's Coun Lynne Grimshaw added: "It is a touchy subject. Councillors across the country have been challenged and have had horrible things happen.
"Hopefully that will never happen in Northumberland. It's a funny situation, we have to look at the current situation that we live in. We're in a very unhealthy state of affairs for whatever reason.
"It needs to be addressed."
Members will be consulted on whether to make no changes, whether to allow members to apply a dispensation in respect of "any and all" members who request that details of their address are not made publicly available, or whether to apply a blanket policy whereby all members' addresses are not made publicly available.
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