Social media lands Preston councillors in hot water

Councillors in Preston are still falling foul of strict rules on the use of  social media, according to a new report.
Preston Town Hall has received five complaints in the last six months.Preston Town Hall has received five complaints in the last six months.
Preston Town Hall has received five complaints in the last six months.

The Town Hall has received five complaints about the conduct of city and parish council members during the Covid lockdown - and all have been over their use of Twitter or Facebook.

The report to be presented to the standards committee on Monday says only one complaint was made about a council member in the 2019/20 financial year.

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But in the six months since April there have been five more - one involving three complaints made against the same councillor.

That case alleged the member had brought his office on the city council into disrepute by misleading the public via a tweet.

“The subject member believed the tweet was correct and the comment on it was removed when the mistake was discovered,” says the report.

Another also brought his office into disrepute for “comments made following the posting of a tweet and a photo by an MP.”

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“It was determined that the posting of the picture during the Covid-19 (pandemic) was insensitive and likely to generate provocative responses,” says the report.

And a female member of a local parish council was reprimanded for “offensive comments posted on Facebook.”

The allegation says: “The subject member was acting in her private capacity and was conducting business or holding herself out as a representative of the parish council. The subject member apologised and was sent a copy of the council’s social media protocol.”

The one complaint during 2019/20 was about a city councillor who used information in a tweet which was untrue. He was asked to remove the tweet and re-read the protocol which governs the use of social media by council members.

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