Caerphilly councillor's 'shoot English people' post condemned

A councillor has been condemned for an online post in which he held what appeared to be a rifle and said it was for "shooting English people trying to cross the channel".

Jon Scriven uploaded the image, taken at Ogmore-by-Sea, Vale of Glamorgan, to his Facebook page in August 2022.

He later surrendered the weapon to police and was suspended from Plaid Cymru.

The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales said his behaviour had been "reckless".

At a meeting of Caerphilly council's standards committee on Friday, the Penyrheol ward representative's remarks were criticised for sparking "a number of complaints" and leading to "significant negative media attention", according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"The post was not appropriate," said Annie Ginwalla, deputy legal adviser for the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales.

Ms Ginwalla said the incident had been "capable of undermining public confidence".

Ms Ginwalla told the committee the situation had also been aggravated by Mr Scriven's "lack of understanding" regarding the guidance around social media use, along with his "surprise" that the post "wasn't seen as a joke".

But she added that his conduct had been mitigated by his "previous good record of service", the "one-off" nature of the remarks and his co-operation with the investigation.

Mr Scriven told the committee the post had been "nothing other than an intended joke" and "nobody complained" until it was screenshotted and shared on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"It's clear I am not a racist," he told the committee, adding he worked with "all races and colour" at his boxing club and had a close friend who was English.

"Eighteen months this has been going on for - it's caused a lot of pain and stress to myself and my family," he added.

Mr Scriven told the committee he had "stayed away from" social media following the incident.

After deliberations, the committee found Mr Scriven had breached the council's code of conduct, but members stopped short of a suspension.

They censured the councillor and recommended he have "further training" on the code of conduct and the use of social media.

Mr Scriven has 21 days to appeal the committee's decision, should he wish to do so.