Social Media
The Moulton’s Parish Council
Social Media and Electronic Communication Policy
The use of digital, social media and electronic communication enables the Parish Council to interact in ways that improve communication both within the Council and between the Council and the people, businesses and agencies it works with and serves.
The Council has a website, a Facebook page and uses email to communicate. The Council will always try to use the most effective channels for its communications. Over time the Council may add additional channels of communication as it seeks to improve and expand the services it delivers. When these changes occur, this policy will be updated to reflect the new arrangements.
The Council’s Facebook page is intended to provide information and updates regarding activities and opportunities within our Parish and to promote our community positively.
Council Communications
Communications from the Council will meet the following criteria:
- Be civil, tasteful and relevant
- Not contain content that is knowingly unlawful, libellous, harassing, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented or racially offensive
- Not contain content knowingly copied from elsewhere for which we do not own the copyright
- Not contain any personal information
- If it concerns official Council business it will be moderated by either the Chair, Vice-Chair of the Council, or the Clerk
- Social media will not be used for the dissemination of political advertising
Public Use of the Council Facebook Page
In order to ensure that all discussions on the Council page are productive, respectful and consistent with the Council’s aims and objectives, we ask users to follow these guidelines:
- Be considerate and respectful of others. Vulgarity, threats or abusive language will not be tolerated
- Differing opinions and discussion of diverse ideas are encouraged, but personal attacks on anyone, including Council members or staff, will not be permitted
- Share freely and be generous with official Council posts, but be aware of copyright laws. Please be accurate and give credit where it is due
- Stay on topic
- Refrain from using the Council’s Facebook page for commercial purposes or to advertise, market or sell products
The page is not monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and we will not always be able to reply individually to all messages or comments received. However, we will endeavour to ensure that any emerging themes or helpful suggestions are passed to the relevant people or authorities.
Please do not include personal or private information in your social media posts to us.
Sending messages or posts via Facebook will not be considered as formally contacting the Council for official purposes, and we will not be obliged to monitor or respond to requests for information through these channels. Instead, please make direct contact with the Council’s Clerk or members of the Council by email.
Removal of Content
The Council retains the right to remove comments or content that includes:
- Obscene or racist content
- Personal attacks, insults or threatening language
- Potentially libellous statements
- Plagiarised material, or any material in violation of any laws, including copyright
- Private or personal information published without consent
- Information or links unrelated to the content of the forum
- Commercial promotions or spam
- Allegations of a breach of Council policy or the law
The Council’s response to any communication received that does not meet the above criteria may be to ignore the message, inform the sender of our policy, or send a brief response as appropriate. This will be at the Council’s discretion based on the message received and given the limited resources available.
Any information posted on the Facebook page that is not in line with these criteria will be removed as quickly as practically possible. Repeat offenders may be blocked from the Facebook page.
The Council may post a statement stating:
“A post breaching the Council’s Social Media Policy has been removed.”
If a post alleges a breach of the Council’s policy or the law, the person who posted it will be asked to submit a formal complaint to the Council or report the matter to the Police as soon as possible in order to allow due process.
Parish Website
Where necessary, we may direct those contacting us to our website to view the required information, or we may forward their question to one of our Councillors for consideration and response.
We may not respond to every comment received, particularly during periods of heavy workload.
At its discretion, the Council may allow approved local groups to have and maintain a presence on its website for the purpose of presenting information about their activities.
The local group will be responsible for maintaining its own content and ensuring that it meets the Council’s rules and expectations for the website.
The Council reserves the right to remove any or all of a local group’s information from the website if it believes that the content does not meet the Council’s rules and expectations.
Where content on the website is maintained by a local group, it should be clearly marked that such content is not the direct responsibility of the Council.
Parish Council Email
The Clerk to the Council has their own Council email address:
clerk@moultonlincs-pc.gov.uk
The email account is monitored Monday to Friday and we aim to reply to all enquiries as soon as possible. An “out of office” message should be used when appropriate.
The Clerk is responsible for managing emails received and passing on any relevant correspondence to members or external agencies for information and/or action.
All communications on behalf of the Council will usually come from the Clerk and/or will always be copied to the Clerk.
All new emails requiring personal data to be passed on will be followed up with a data consent form for completion before any action is taken on that correspondence.
Individual Councillors are at liberty to communicate directly with parishioners in relation to their own personal views. Where appropriate, correspondence should be copied to the Clerk.
Please note: any emails copied to the Clerk become official Council correspondence and may be subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
These procedures will ensure that a complete and proper record of all correspondence is maintained.
Personal information must not be forwarded to people or organisations outside of the Council. This includes names, addresses, email addresses, IP addresses and cookie identifiers.
Adopted at the meeting on: 5th May 2026
To be reviewed: May 2027