Papers for next week’s Isle of Wight Full Council meeting reveal a motion from Councillor Karen Lucioni, the Cabinet member for Regulatory Services, Community Protection and ICT.
Councillor Lucioni is asking fellow councillors to recognise that “increasing levels of toxicity in public and political discourse is having a detrimental impact on local democracy”, and calls for the council to sign up to the Local Government Association’s ‘Debate Not Hate’ campaign.
Recent assault
The Cabinet member also says that council officers, staff and contractors should be free to go about their duties without fear of threat and intimidation. She cites a recent incident that saw an assault on a member of the council’s parking team.
The motion
The motion reads:
The intimidation and abuse of councillors, in person or otherwise, undermines democracy; preventing elected members from representing the communities they serve, deterring individuals from standing for election, and undermining public faith in democratic processes.
This council notes that increasing levels of toxicity in public and political discourse is having a detrimental impact on local democracy and that prevention, support and responses to abuse and intimidation of local politicians must improve to ensure councillors feel safe and able to continue representing their residents.
Equally, officers, staff and contractors working for this council should be free to go about their duties without fear of threat and intimidation. The recent assault on a member of our parking team is not acceptable. This council puts people first and will not tolerate abuse of any kind. We appreciate at times services may fall below the standards residents are reasonably entitled to expect. This is why we have a robust complaints procedure where residents can raise concerns, and we will work with them to seek to ensure services are delivered to a high standard.
This council commits to challenge the normalisation of abuse against councillors, officers, staff, and the contractors who work with us and uphold exemplary standards of public and political debate in all it does.
The council will uphold the values of the debate not hate and raise public awareness of the role of councillors and staff in their communities, encourage healthy debate and improve the responses and support for local politicians and staff facing abuse and intimidation.
Resolution: This council agrees to sign up to the Local Government Association’s Debate Not Hate campaign. The campaign aims to raise public awareness of the role of councillors in local communities, encourage healthy debate and improve the response to and support those in public life facing abuse and intimidation.
