Agenda item

The committee considered a report of the Director of Legal and Democratic Services and Monitoring Officer which outlined developments of the Local Government Association (LGA)’s Debate Not Hate campaign.

The report provided an update on developments of the LGA’s Debate Not Hate campaign, which aimed to raise public awareness of the role of Councillors in their communities, encourage healthy debate and improve the responses and support for local politicians facing abuse and intimidation (for copy of report, see file of minutes).

The Director of Legal and Democratic Services and Monitoring Officer indicated that she had attended the roundtable event evaluating the impact of the Debate Not Hate Campaign with other Monitoring Officers. The Councils approach to implementing the Campaign is consistent with that of other Councils represented at the event. One point that was consistently highlighted was that the campaign is helpful in enabling Councils to support its members in relation to abuse and intimidation. However, there is still a gap in terms of promoting the campaign with the public. It would be helpful if the LGA could promote the messaging more directly with the public in support of local authorities to provide a more “independent” perspective.

Resolved: That the report be noted.