Council to carry out review of staff safety after 'abuse'

It follows a recent move by the local authority’s Chief Executive Officer Paul Satoor to quickly move meetings back to Wallasey Town Hall over concerns.

The local authority initially moved meetings to Birkenhead Town Hall following the temporary closure of the town hall in Wallasey to save money in 2023. The initial plan was to keep Wallasey closed until 2025 with the money saved to go towards investment in street cleansing activities across the borough.

However, several meetings have been disrupted in recent months by protestors opposing the current Israeli military operation in Gaza with the public being escorted from meetings several times. One incident led to council staff members receiving abuse and being called “a little rat” when one member of the public was refused re-entry to Birkenhead Town Hall trying to find a councillor.

The following day, Wirral Council leader Cllr Paul Stuart, said: “Several members and officers were subject to threatening and intimidating behaviour. To have staff verbally abused and some staff described as visibly shaken after the meeting is clearly unacceptable. What happened last night cannot be described as a love mob, nor described as peaceful protest.”

During a meeting in May to re-elect Cllr Stuart as council leader, protesters over the conflict in Israel and Palestine began shouting over councillors forcing the meeting to be paused while they were escorted from the building. Once the meeting reconvened, councillors from all political parties condemned the behaviour.

Cllr Stuart said one female councillor had been threatened and several had received abuse. He accused the Green Party of encouraging the protest but this was rejected by Green Party co-leader Pat Cleary who said the behaviour was “disruptive and unacceptable.”

Steve Fox, the local authority’s head of democratic services, said the review would look at member safety and welfare and beefed up security arrangements had worked but wasn’t excessive, adding: “I’ve seen the pressure members of the council; have been put under and some of the abuse I’ve seen you receive at the Town Hall.” He said there was a “bigger piece of work that needs to be undertaken and quickly” reviewing councillor safety in communities as well as registering interests.

During the discussion, Chair Cllr Tony Cox, said: “There were a few that were disrupted so bad that something had to give in order for us to actually carry out normal business.” He also referred to an interruption of a minute’s silence following last week’s events in Southport, adding: “That’s all you need to know on that one.”

Cllr Phil Gilchrist said officers had “genuine concern” for staff safety, referring to the historic murder of Harry Collinson, a council planning officer for Derwentside District Council who was shot over a planning dispute. However, concerns were raised by Cllr Judith Grier who said a disability group had raised issues around poor transport links to Wallasey.

A question was also by Cllr Grier about an investigation after several trees were cut down in Birkenhead town centre and whether things needed to change following this. It was described as an operational issue and an internal audit investigation is currently ongoing.