Abuse of council staff will not be tolerated

Bridgend County Borough Council is the latest local authority to announce that it is developing a new zero-tolerance approach towards anyone who abuses or threatens local authority staff.

It follows recent news that more councils across England and Wales have taken similar action to protect their staff over the last two years.

Unfortunately, some people believe that it is acceptable to abuse, intimidate or even threaten council employees, and to generally treat and speak to them in a fashion that they would never dream of doing when dealing with other large organisations.

We have dealt with serious incidents in recent years ranging from racial abuse and sustained campaigns of harassment to criminal damage and threats of violence, but this is about more than that – this is about challenging the attitude that it is somehow okay to insult and berate people who are trying their best to provide communities with important and often essential services.

Council Leader Huw David

Chief Executive Mark Shephard added: “Council officers are non-political and are there to do a specific, often highly difficult job. If someone is dissatisfied with a service, we have processes in place that enable people to report it – please don’t start taking it out on a member of staff.

“The zero-tolerance approach that we are developing will seek to protect staff from such deplorable behaviour and to take appropriate action that is available to us, including referrals to South Wales Police wherever it proves necessary to do so.”