East Suffolk Council has committed to challenging the abuse and intimidation of its members and officers.
A meeting of the full council agreed that ‘increasing levels of toxicity in public and political discourse are having a detrimental impact on local democracy’.
A motion proposed by council leader Caroline Topping said the issue required a ‘robust’ response to ensure councillors felt safe, supported, and able to continue in their roles.
It was agreed that East Suffolk would sign up to the Local Government Association’s (LGA) Debate Not Hate campaign, which aims to improve support for councillors experiencing abuse or intimidation.
The council also resolved to write to local MPs to ask them to support the campaign, and urge the Government to work with the LGA to set out a plan to tackle the abuse of elected members.
East Suffolk also said it would ensure it and the police had a clear mechanism for councillors and officers to report abuse.
At the meeting, councillor Alan Green said he had faced two days of ‘horrendous abuse’ last month, when he was accused multiple times of money mismanagement by someone using an anonymous pseudonym and left ‘feeling isolated’.
He said: ‘Hopefully the new system will assist everybody, including officers and everybody else.’
