Councillor forced to call police after being harassed in his own home
A HIGH-PROFILE Coventry councillor has revealed he had to call the police after being harassed at his own house late at night.
Cllr Allan Andrews, who is deputy leader of the Conservative group and represents Earlsdon, made the admission at a meeting on Thursday (September 12).
Fellow councillor Pat Hetherton also spoke out against harassment members receive on social media, labelling some comments as “absolutely awful”.
Speaking on Thursday, Cllr Andrews said: “I think we all have robust discussions with our residents and sometimes it can feel intimidating – if somebody wants to share their views to you and it spills over onto social media, or you nip to the gents and they will follow you in to give you a piece of their mind.
“That stuff happens and I’m sure we have all experienced it.
“In other incidents at 10 o’clock at night the doorbell goes. Once I had to call the police.
“But that sort of stuff happens. I have never felt it is endemic. They are isolated incidents.”
Cllr Andrews revealed this week he was stepping down from his role at the next election following 12 years in the role.
He said he had achieved all he wanted to as a councillor and now wanted to focus on his family and his health.
Councillors highlighted the issues during a discussion on intimidation in public life, which made reference to the experience of parliamentary candidates and
MPs at the 2017 General Election.
When asked about harassment on a local level, Cllr Hetherton, who herself holds a high-profile cabinet role in charge of the city’s roads, said members are subjected to attacks on social media.
She said: “I’m inclined to not read it. I think it’s unhelpful.
“I know that myself and colleagues work so hard to do the best for our city that when you see those negative comments they are absolutely awful. “They don’t know the full story, they just read a headline - sometimes it’s inaccurate.
“You get attacked on some of the blogs where it is fairly anonymous and people have different aliases. “But to be quite honest in order to concentrate on the work we have to do and to be positive about that and put our energy into it, my personal feel is I will not engage. “I have seen how it has affected other people and my colleagues so I take that approach to it.”
Any issues can be raised to the group whip, the meeting was told.
Council monitoring officer Julie Newman added: “The council takes its duty of care very seriously.
“We have referred to the police if we feel we need to do that.
“We have processes in place.”
I think we all have robust discussions with our residents and sometimes it can feel intimidating. Cllr Allan Andrews