Wymondham Town Council has introduced the scheme after a councillor had a ‘psychiatric emergency’ (Picture: Newsquest/SWNS)
A town council has introduced ‘red cards’ for members who feel too anxious and need to leave a meeting.
The scheme at Wymondham Town Council in Norfolk will allow councillors to hold up the card to indicate they want to leave if they are experiencing high levels of anxiety.
They will be allowed to go to another room where they will be offered water and advice on grounding techniques.
The new scheme was unanimously approved by all councillors last week.
Initially it was suggested that councillors would use red cards but this was rejected because of the colour’s connotations.
It has been introduced after Tony Holden stepped down from his role as councillor and accused the council of ‘achieving nothing’.
This triggered a ‘psychiatric emergency’ for green councillor Joe Barrett who has PTSD, autism, and ADHD.
He had to leave the meeting for 20 minutes and said on Facebook while Tony did not mean to cause him flashbacks new rules were needed.
Former councillor Tony Holden resigned from his role (Picture: Newsquest/SWNS)
Joe posted: ‘[The cards] offer an option for councillors to remove themselves from meetings if they experience an emergency and need to take a break, but without having to speak or interrupt the meeting. Simply raise a card and go.
‘The basis of this is rooted in my understanding of anxiety, stress and PTSD, which is based on a mix of my own experience of these, along with a lot of research over the years.’
But Tony has described his former colleague as ‘fragile’ and said local democracy will suffer as a result.
He did previously apologise though for any distress caused.
He said: ‘The council isn’t fit for purpose. They’re fragile and have lost their way. This is so unnecessary.
‘I’m being used as a scapegoat. People can walk out of a meeting any time that they want to, but if you’re not in a meeting then you’re not representing your community – democracy has just gone out of the window.’
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But the scheme has been supported by other councillors like David Roberts who said: ‘I too have diagnosed severe traumatic PTSD as well as MS.
‘Me personally this not just about mental health but equality, what happens or is said to disabled councillors off camera by councillors can be worse.
‘There is an inherent lack of equality knowledge and what is seen and heard from Westminster is just a prevalent at other levels of political spectrum..’
But locals in Wymondham have told councillors to ‘get a grip’ and if it is too much to ‘step down’.
The town council chairwoman Suzanne Nuri-Nixon disagrees though and said: ‘This isn’t us being weak at all – it’s about making sure we’re trying to be inclusive.
‘We would welcome anyone from any section of society to represent us and if we’re meant to be a true democracy, we need to make reasonable adjustments..
‘We’re a small town council and if someone needs to get up and leave, it could be misconstrued as them not being happy with something that has been said.
‘If you’re diabetic, or if you receive a text message about an emergency, you may need to leave and you should be able to do that without potentially disrupting the meeting.
‘This isn’t a school or a classroom and you shouldn’t have to put your hand up to ask to leave for a personal reason. We should be able to make reasonable adjustments.’
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