MS calls out 'abhorrent' behaviour shown to councillors and candidates

Sam Rowlands, MS for North Wales, has called for more protection for local councillors and candidates from abuse. 

Mr Rowlands, Shadow Minister for Local Government was speaking during Local Government Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government, Rebecca Evans, in the Senedd. 

He said: “Recently a 2022 council candidate from Newport received hundreds of pounds-worth of damage to his car, and that isn't the first attack on his property, with targets to his house, nails pushed into his car tyres and social media trolling during the recent council and Senedd elections.

“In light of this Minister, what are your views on council candidates, who are willing to put their head above the parapet and represent their communities, having to deal with this abhorrent abuse? 

“This is not just a recent or single issue for one candidate. In May's elections, paint was thrown over cars owned by a long-serving Swansea councillor, which led to irreparable damage; we saw two councillors in Caerphilly receive abuse letters, calling them all sorts of things and the police had to get involved in that; in addition, a Cardiff councillor, who'd been a councillor for a long time, shared some horrific stories about some of the abuse that she has had to face up to over recent years. 

“You have outlined some of the work and the actions that you are undertaking.  It is really important that we protect our local councillors, our local candidates, from this disgusting behaviour.” 

The Minister said: “We have to give respect to anybody who puts themselves forward as a candidate for a community council, town council or county council election, because it does take an element of bravery to do that. Abuse of any candidate is absolutely unacceptable and we have to do everything that we can to prevent it.  

“One of the important things that we have to do is to help councillors understand that this kind of behaviour isn't acceptable, because there's often an inclination on the part of elected representatives to think that abuse just comes with the job, and it absolutely shouldn't. We have recently refreshed 'The good councillor's guide', and that very much is about helping those councillors understand what is and isn't acceptable in terms of the response that they receive and potentially the abuse that they receive, and it also then helps them to understand what support might be available to them.”