Council appoints first LGBT+ ambassador

Councillor Josh Bancroft introduced the motion, and was subsequently appointed to the role.

He said he brought the idea forward because he feels the council should better reflect the communities it serves.

Councillor Bancroft said: “We are a diverse council, representing a diverse community with a growing LGBT+ population.

“We recently held the first Chase Pride event in the district and I want to thank the team who organised and ran the event and congratulate them on the success of it.

“I never imagined I would see a Pride event take place in Cannock Chase and certainly not one that attracted 5,500 people.

“What Pride does at its core is celebrate diversity, but it also acknowledges that more needs to be done to achieve equality for LGBT+ people.”

He feels the new ambassador role will help the council work in the community to make Cannock Chase a nicer place for everyone to live, work and visit.

He said: “When I talk to LGBT+ people in Cannock Chase, some they tell me they feel isolated and sometimes refrain from engaging in the wider community.

“We need to do more to bring all parts of the community together – hosting more events would allow people to connect and socialise.”

He said an ambassador working across the council could also help make neighbourhoods safer.

He highlighted that Staffordshire Police identified 35 incidents of hate crime in the past year relating to gender, sexual orientation and transgender people and the number of these crimes is rising.

While the creation of the role itself was broadly supported across the council, it attracted criticism by opposition councillors who felt it should be handed to an external body to manage.

Councillor Josh Newbury said: “In my view, this motion isn’t the best approach to getting a representative who will improve visibility and acceptance of LGBT+ people in or district.

“I also find it a bit disingenuous given the Conservative Party’s record on supporting LGBT+ rights.”

He also took issue with the local party’s support for Chase Pride.

He said: “This administration didn’t provide any financial assistance to Chase Pride other than the 50% reduction on park hire fees which is standard for all community groups.”

The leader of the council disputed this, saying the council had provided officer time to support the event, which comes at a financial cost to the council.

However, Councillor Newbury’s main issue with the role was a concern that it wouldn’t offer any tangible benefit to the LGBT+ community and could instead be seen as a political appointment.

He said: “It’s clear to many people that if it goes ahead as it is, this position could become just another label for a councillor.”

He tried to amend the motion to get it overseen by Chase Pride instead, with grant funding allocated for this.

Councillor Bancroft hit back at Councillor Newbury’s comments and said: “I’m personally offended by some of the things he said.

“A lot of things the Conservative Party has done are nothing to do with me and in fact a lot of them were done well in advance of my birth.”

Speaking about the role, he added: “It’s not disingenuous, it’s not just label.”

Both councillors identify as LGBT+ and both were recommended by their respective parties to take on the ambassador role after a vote to offer it to Chase Pride was lost.

Councillor Bancroft, who is part of the council’s ruling Conservative group, was eventually appointed to the role.

Representatives from Chase Pride were at the meeting to see the decision being made.

Kathryn Downs, chair of Chase Pride, said afterwards: “We’re fairly disappointed in the outcome.

“I think the appointment of and LGBT+ ambassador is absolutely the right thing for the area, but my feeling – and the feeling of Chase Pride – is that it should be independent of politics.

“There are organisations out there, like ourselves – that exist and already have existing links with the police, with the fire service, with Inspiring Healthy Lifestyles – that can build on the work that we’ve achieved in recent months.

“I think politicians come and go fairly rapidly, and that’s a fear of ours is that we’ll be constantly rebuilding connections on a regular basis.

“So, we’re disappointed in the outcome but that’s not to say the creation of the role isn’t the right thing for the area, because it absolutely is.”