Council leaders 'cowardly'

A MUM of children with special educational needs has blasted Bristol City Council leaders as “weak cowards’ for failing to launch a long-promised independent inquiry into the SEND “spying” scandal.

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Back in 2022, a majority of councillors voted in favour of an investigation into how the authority's officers monitored the social media of SEND parents.

Calls for an inquiry followed leaked emails earlier that year revealing how council staff collected and shared a dossier of posts critical of the organisation, cross-referencing anonymous Twitter accounts with private Facebook wedding photos.

But despite a vote at full council to approve a Conservative motion calling on then-Labour mayor Marvin Rees to agree to an external probe, this has never happened.