TOWN councillors could soon become more vocal online after a resident prompted members to look into their conduct on Facebook.

At a meeting on Monday, September 4, councillors agreed to consider using popular pages such as Northwich Life to answer questions from residents and help address their concerns.

The move comes more than a month after two prominent Winsford town councillors – Cllr Stephen Burns and Cllr Charlie Parkinson – hit out at ‘keyboard warriors’ on the Winsford Community Forum Facebook page, with Cllr Burns leaving the site.

Cllr Andrew Cooper, member for Bridge, put the suggestion forward for discussion after a resident had proposed it to him.

“Nowadays more and more people like to engage with what is going on town on Northwich Life,” he said.

“There can be a lot of keyboard warriors but that can stem from a sincere frustration that they see a lot of things happening in town but they don’t feel they can engage in it.

“I’m not asking people to get involved with arguments, but if we see someone asking a question and we know the answer then we could get involved, and hopefully we can change peoples’ views on what we are here to do.”

Cllr Kevin Rimmer, member for Greenbank, said that although the council must be wary of internet trolls, it must do all it can to help ‘genuine people’.

“We have to be careful because some of those creatures are out to cause as much chaos as they can,” he said.

“I would have more respect for those keyboard warriors if they came to speak to us. We are here to serve the community – too many people put too much emphasis on social media.

“But I do agree because if I was not a councillor and I wanted to know something, I would be really frustrated. When we have got people trying to find something out we should at least try to help because most people are genuine people.”

Cllr Sam Naylor, member for Bridge, agreed with Cllr Cooper’s position – but Cllr Peter Naylor, member for Greenbank, called for a more careful ‘whole town council’ approach to posting on Facebook.

Members voted to look into the suggestion further, with Cllr Sam Naylor set to look at Cheshire West and Chester Council’s social media policy.