Local authority leaders have repeated their call for legislation enabling councils to withhold councillors' home addresses amid growing fears of abuse and intimidation.
Cllr Marianne Overton, chair of the Local Government Association’s (LGA) Civility in Public Life Programme Steering Group, said there was a growing problem of councillors being ‘harassed and intimidated whilst doing their job’.
She also warned that the ‘unnecessary’ requirement to publish a councillor’s home address can leave councillors and their families feeling ‘distressed’ and called for legislation to stop this requirement.
‘We are urging the Government to introduce legislation that would allow a council to proactively withhold councillors' home addresses from the public as soon as is possible,’ she said.
