Three years ago Christine Townsend criticised council staff “spying” on parents and called for an inquiry
Green Councillor Christine Townsend chairs the children and young people policy committee(Image: Christine Townsend)
In a shocking U-turn a leading Green councillor has defended monitoring the social media of parents of disabled children. In opposition Green Councillor Christine Townsend criticised the surveillance and called for an inquiry, but now in power she is questioning if an inquiry is needed.
Three years ago staff at Bristol City Council were revealed to be monitoring the social media accounts of several parents, who were deemed to be too critical of the education department. The scandal caused an uproar, and there are still several burning questions left unanswered.
Since May last year Cllr Townsend has chaired the children and young people policy committee. During a committee meeting on Thursday, June 26, she faced questions about whether the social media monitoring is still taking place — and why an inquiry still hasn’t been set up.
Labour Cllr Kerry Bailes, a mother of a child with special educational needs, claimed she was spied on herself. She said: “Our social media accounts were tracked and screenshots were taken. Some of those officers still work here. I’m included in that, and I’ve seen the evidence.
“The council still denies it happened. We were promised an independent investigation, and we haven’t had it. My concern is that this did happen, the council can deny it all they want, this happened to a small group of us.
“We want assurances that this is not going to happen again, that it isn’t still happening, and we want an inquiry into why it happened. That’s what we were promised. We want answers. I know that I was spied on on social media. It wasn’t a short little snapshot, it was over a long period.”
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Several parents had their social media accounts monitored by council staff after criticising the provision of special educational needs support in Bristol. Internal emails were leaked in July 2022 revealing how staff collected and shared a dossier of critical social media posts, cross-referencing anonymous Twitter accounts with private Facebook wedding photos.
Cllr Townsend said: “The thing I would say about social media is that if somebody puts something in the public domain, it’s not spying. If something is in the public domain, they have put it in the public domain.
“There are certain officers whose role it is to do communication, and it would be perfectly acceptable for them to do that. There are other officers for whom it wouldn’t be acceptable for them to be doing it. There was a legal case that was settled, that could have been taken further and it wasn’t.
“You would have to ask the previous administration as to what the motivation was. There isn’t a motivation to be looking at the social media accounts of parents, other than where there is a legitimate reason and concern around safeguarding, but that would still only be stuff that’s in the public domain.”
According to council guidance given to staff, the view of the Chief Surveillance Commissioner is that if council staff repeatedly view social media accounts, without the knowledge of the person, this could be “covert surveillance”.
Cllr Townsend added that ongoing legal cases when the Greens took control of the council, in May last year, prevented them from setting up an inquiry. But those cases are now not still ongoing.
The legal case that was settled was with Jen Smith, a mother whose social media was monitored. According to her posts on X, the council “frustrated the legal process at every opportunity”, and she would have preferred to go to court but the council “wouldn’t behave”.
Green Cllr Shona Jemphrey said: “So if it was felt that there was a need, there could still be an inquiry if it was felt that there were still questions needed to be answered?”
Labour Cllr Katja Hornchen added: “If there’s been a settlement, then surely an inquiry can begin. I don’t know if it’s true, but I’ve heard that there’s still some [monitoring] ongoing. Maybe it’s just a fear that the spying is still ongoing. The people who did it are still employed. I can understand the fear and insecurity that still pervades.”
Cllr Townsend replied: “We would need to understand what those questions were. There’s been a settlement. A settlement is both sides coming to an agreement. If there are still things that are outstanding, then that would be for that case to be made.”
Several questions were raised during a council debate in October 2022 regarding the monitoring. In a motion seconded by Cllr Townsend who was then in opposition, councillors voted to hold an independent inquiry to answer those questions.
These included who was ultimately responsible for the scandal, why the council didn’t have a policy in place to prevent the practice, and if staff “infiltrated private Facebook groups”. Another question was whether the monitoring was approved by leading councillors, which is still unanswered.
In the 2022 debate, Cllr Townsend said: “The powers and resources used to investigate our citizens must be used with very strict boundaries and ensured that it doesn’t become an abuse of power or a method to silence. Weaponising power to silence and defund is a path to authoritarianism.
“It’s my belief that this is why an independent investigation is needed. There was found to be no formal process followed for gaining internal legal permission to undertake this collection of material. It involved cross-referencing social media accounts and the collation of an evidence bundle that was then used by the lead for education.
“While we were told that no elected members authorised this, it suggests to me that such practices were assumed to be normalised under the political leadership of this organisation. In the words of Tony Benn, those who sacrifice their view in order to get to the top, very often leave no footprint in the sand. It’s those boat-rockers who are the ones who build the craft.”
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