Councillors’ home addresses may not automatically be made public
West Sussex county councillors have spoken about feeling intimidated by people who show up at their homes uninvited.
At a governance committee meeting last week, members asked for changes to be made regarding how and when their addresses were published.
At the moment, the county council runs an ‘opt-out’ approach to publishing home addresses – they are included in each councillor’s online profile unless councillors specifically ask for them to be removed.
The committee suggested that system should be tipped on its head, with an ‘opt-in’ approach taken instead – with those details only shared if a county councillor specifically asks for them to be.
Steve Waight (Con, Goring) told the meeting that a resident had knocked on his door one weekend and started waving a ‘fairly large walking stick’ at him during their conversation.
Mr Waight said he felt ‘quite intimidated’.
Meanwhile Wickremaratchi
Sujan (Con,
Haywards Heath Town) described how a resident knocked on his door at 8am on a Sunday and would not leave for an hour.
Kirsty Lord (Lib Dem, Hassocks and Burgess Hill
South) took her address down in November.
She said: “Part of the reason for that is my children are at an age now where they’re at home on their own and I don’t want them to have to answer the door to somebody that could be there for not particularly nice reasons.”
Amanda Jupp (Con, Billingshurst), the council’s cabinet member for adults services, said she had found it intimidating when people had turned up on her doorstep without an appointment.
She added: “I’m really disappointed because I’ve always been very open and very happy to have my address published until recently.
“But I think now that there’s too much of a risk and it’s very sad.”
Concerns were raised during the meeting about the need for transparency.
It was suggested that, rather than showing a full address, each councillor’s profile could simply state the area in which they lived.
The committee’s recommendations will be discussed by a member development group, a subgroup of the committee, at a later date.