Introduction

The use of digital and social media and electronic communication enables the Town

Council to interact in a way that improves the communications both within the Council and

between the Council and the people, businesses and agencies it workswith and serves.

The Council has a website, Facebook page, Twitter account and uses email to

communicate. The Council will always try to use the most effective channel for its

communications. Over time the Council may add to the channels of communicationthat it

uses as it seeks to improve and expand the services it delivers. When these changes

occur, this Policy will be updated to reflect the new arrangements.

The Council Facebook pages, and Twitter account intends to provide information and

updates regarding activities and opportunities within our Town and promote our community

positively.

This policy applies to employees, Councillors, contractors and where appropriate,

members of the public.

Communications from the Council

Communications from the Council will meet the following criteria:

• Be civil, tasteful and relevant.

• Not contain content that is knowingly unlawful, libellous, harassing, defamatory,

abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented or racially

offensive.

• Not contain content knowingly copied from elsewhere, for which we do not own the

• Not contain any personal information.

• If it is official Council business, it will be moderated by either the Chair/Vice Chair of

the Council, committee Chair or Vice Chair or the to the Council.

• Social media will not be used for the dissemination of any political advertising.

Guidelines for Employees, Councillors, Contractors and Members of the Public

In order to ensure that all discussions on the Town Council’s Facebook and Twitter

pages are productive, respectful and consistent with the Council’s aims and objectives,

we ask you to follow these guidelines:

• Be considerate and respectful of others. Vulgarity, threats or abuse of language will

not be tolerated.

Ryde Town Council - Social Media and Electronic Communication Policy - V2 - May 2021

• Differing opinions and discussion of diverse ideas are encouraged, but personal

attacks on anyone, including the Council members or staff, will not be

permitted.

• Share freely and be generous with official Council posts but be aware of copyright

laws; be accurate and give credit where credit is due.

• Stay on topic.

• Refrain from using the Council’s Facebook page or Twitter site for commercial

purposes or to advertise market or sell products.

The site is not monitored 24/7 and we will not always be able to reply individually to all

messages or comments received. However, we will endeavour to ensure that any

emerging themes or helpful suggestions are passed to the relevant people or

authorities. Please do not include personal/private information in your social media

posts to us.

Sending a message/post via Facebook or Twitter will not be considered as

contacting the Council for official purposes and we will not be obliged to

monitor or respond to requests for information through these channels.

Instead, please make direct contact with the council’s Clerk, staff, and/or

members of the council by emailing.

Removing Content

The Town Council retains the right to remove comments or content that includes:

• Obscene or racist content

• Personal attacks, insults, or threatening language

• Potentially libelous statements.

• Plagiarised material; any material in violation of any laws, including copyright

• Private, personal information published without consent

• Information or links unrelated to the content of the forum

• Commercial promotions or spam

• Alleges a breach of a Council’s policy or the law

The Council’s response to any communication received not meeting the above criteria

will be to either ignore, inform the sender of our policy or send a brief response as

appropriate. This will be at the Council’s discretion based on the message received,

given our limited resources available. Any information posted onthe Facebook page not

in line with the above criteria will be removed as quickly as practically possible. Repeat

offenders will be blocked from the Facebook page. TheCouncil may post a statement

that ‘A post breaching the Council’s Social Media Policy has been removed’. If the post

alleges a breach of a Council’s policy or the law the person who posted it will be asked

to submit a formal complaint to the Council or report the matter to the Police as soon as

possible to allow due process.

Ryde Town Council - Social Media and Electronic Communication Policy - V2 - May 2021

Town Council Website

Where necessary, we may direct those contacting us to our website to see the

required information, or we may forward their question to one of our Councillors for

consideration and response. We may not respond to every comment we receive

particularly if we are experiencing a heavy workload.

The Council may, at its discretion, allow and enable approved local groups to have a

presence on its website for the purpose of presenting information about the group’s

activities. The Council reserves the right to remove any or all of a local group’s

information from the web site if it feels that the content does not meet the Council’s

‘rules and expectation’ for its website.

Parish/Town Council email

The Clerk to the council has their own council email address

(clerk@rydetowncouncil.gov.uk )

The email account is monitored mainly during office hours, Monday to Friday, and we

aim to reply to all questions sent as soon as we can. An ‘out of office’ messageshould

be used when appropriate.

The Clerk is responsible for dealing with email received and passing on any relevant

mail to members or external agencies for information and/or action. All communications

on behalf of the Council will usually come from the Clerk, and/or otherwise will always

be copied to the Clerk. All new emails requiring data to be passed on, will be followed

up with a Data consent form for completion before actionis taken with that

correspondence.

Individual Councillors are at liberty to communicate directly with parishioners in

relation to their own personal views and, if appropriate, copy to the Clerk. NB any

emails copied to the Clerk becomes official and will be subject to The Freedom of

Information Act.

These procedures will ensure that a complete and proper record of all

correspondence is kept.

Do not forward personal information on to other people or groups outside of the

Council, this includes names, addresses, email, IP addresses and cookie identifiers.

SMS (texting)

Members and the Clerk may use SMS as a convenient way to communicate at

times. All are reminded that this policy also applies to such messages.

Video Conferencing e.g., Skype

If this medium is used to communicate please note that this policy also applies to theuse

of video conferencing.

Ryde Town Council - Social Media and Electronic Communication Policy - V2 - May 2021

9. Internal communication and access to information within the Council

The Council is continually looking at ways to improve its working and the use of

social media and electronic communications is a major factor in delivering

improvement.

10. Councillors are expected to abide by the Code of Conduct and the Data

Protection Act in all their work on behalf of the Council

As more and more information become available at the press of a button, it is vital that

all information is treated sensitively and securely. Councillors are expected to maintain

an awareness of the confidentiality of information that they have access to and not to

share confidential information with anyone. Failure to properly observe confidentiality

may be seen as a breach of the Council’s Code of Conduct and will bedealt with through

its prescribed procedures (at the extreme it may also involve a criminal investigation).

Members should also be careful only to cc essential recipients on emails i.e. to avoiduse

of the ‘Reply to All’ option if at all possible, but of course copying in all who needto know

and ensuring that email trails have been removed.

Ryde Town Council - Social Media and Electronic Communication Policy - V2 - May 2021