Council member address details concern

West Sussex councillors have spoken about feeling intimidated by people who show up at their homes uninvited.

During a meeting of the governance committee, 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 they 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 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.

MrWaight said he felt‘ quite intimidated’.

Kirsty Lord (Lib Dem, Hassocks & 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.”

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 constituency in which they lived.

The committee’s recommendations will be discussed by a member development group, a subgroup of the committee.