Creeting St Peter: more thoughts on a social media policy

Please note that this blog post refers to an item of Parish Council business and, accordingly, I must note that the views and comments that follow have been made entirely in a personal capacity, and do not, and should not be deemed to, represent  the official view of Creeting St Peter Parish Council or its Officers.

I've had a little more than a glancing view of  the document now so, what do I think?

Well, we now have 'approved social media' the official council website, Facebook page and Twitter feed, none of which I have operating access to anyway, so I suppose that I can't breach any agreed policy regarding them, at least.

There is guidance for Officers which, if my understanding of the definition of Officers is correct, doesn't affect me either - I'm a Member, not an Officer.

There follows a section entitled 'Usage of Third Party Media in your Official Capacity as a Parish Councillor', which tells me to do things that any self-respected, reasonable blogger should take for granted - try and avoid abuse, both in your posts and in any comments that might be submitted, ensure that you do not give the perception that you are representing the view of the Council (that's the Clerk's job), appropriate use of information only available to you through your position as a councillor.

It seems harmless.

We also have a protocol. It is called 'Internal Procedure and Protocol Blogging and Social Networking Policy for Parish Councillors'. This worries me a bit, especially as, to the best of my knowledge, I'm the only councillor in the Parish with a blog. One of my colleagues has had a Twitter account for slightly less than a month but, otherwise, that would be just me as well. It includes the following clause;

5.  Councillors must bear in mind that if they have a private blog, website, or social media pages and refer to Parish Council business on them, they will be viewed as acting in their official capacity.

Now, that does make me a bit nervous, especially given that my view on the role, responsibility and obligations of parish councillors has, on occasion, differed from that of some of my colleagues. I accept, freely, that my view is a minority one in some quarters, but there is reason to be concerned. Does this mean that, if we as a council decide to do something, and I decide to blog about it before the minutes are published as a thoroughly good thing, that I am in breach of the Council's Code of Conduct? Or, worse still, if we make a decision that I'm unhappy about,  that I cannot let it be known why I am unhappy until the minutes are published?

That isn't the case on most local authorities I know of, indeed I know a number of councillors who 'live tweet' their meetings. So, I'm going to have to seek clarification as to what the intention of the policy is before I draw any conclusions.

I have a nasty feeling that this isn't going to end well...