Middlesbrough councillor hits out at comments on Facebook

Middlesbrough Councillor David Branson branded some of those issuing criticisms online as “nutcases”, while emphasising that some people just have “strong opinions and that’s fair enough”.

His remarks came at a quarterly meeting of Middlesbrough Council’s standards committee today (Monday, April 20), where councillors heard that out of the total 37 complaints made against councillors in 2025, four are still ongoing – while three out of the six complaints made so far this year are still not yet resolved.

It was highlighted to councillors that so far in 2026, there have been no member-on-member complaints.

Councillor Mick Saunders said he was “very pleased” there has been no member-on-member complaints so far this year, saying: “It’s nice to know members have grown up now and no tit for tat.”

Based on the figure of just six complaints so far this year, Labour Councillor David Branson said: “That looks as if we are going to have substantially less complaints in 2026 than we had in 2025.”

When it comes to the theme of complaints, Cllr Branson was of the belief that without social media, “we’d have a much easier time”, adding: “I suspect that 90 per cent of the issue is somebody typing this thing up on a computer, that would never ever say to the person, in-person.”

Cllr Branson, who represents Coulby Newham ward, says he tends to avoid social media but when he does go on it, that’s when he sees “all the nutcases” – quickly clarifying that not all people commenting online deserve the label, “some of them are valid comments”.

He was advised by a council officer to call such individuals “people with strong opinions”, Cllr Saunders agreed, saying: “Not nutcases”.

Cllr Saunders later added he understood the point that Cllr Branson was making, regarding social media, but he thought members should “concentrate on their own ward issues”, unhappy with point scoring against other members of different wards, adding: “We’re all responsible for Middlesbrough, but we were all elected in our wards.”

He believed “a lot” of the past member-on-member complaints had come from members “interfering” with other peoples’ wards and “criticising” other ward councillors.

Labour Councillor Janet Thompson said she understood Cllr Saunders’ point but highlighted the situation where a councillor lives in a different ward to where they represent and so may issue commentary as a resident.

Cllr Saunders said people need to be “very careful”, saying members have previously “made it their job” to criticise other councillors, pointing out that members do not have “eyes all over your head”.

Cllr Thompson concurred on that very theme, thinking back to a time where she had someone telling her she didn’t live where she did live, saying the remarks “attacking” her and her husband were “unacceptable”.