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Controlling what the public sees about councillors

Procedure Clerk ★ Priority

Where these settings live

Publication settings are managed from the Council Info page. Go to Council in the left-hand menu, then look for the Publication Options section on the right-hand side of the page.

Two buttons are available:

  • Edit Publication Preferences — turn individual publication options on or off for your council
  • Review Published Information — see exactly what is currently published for all councillors

What you can control

The following options can be turned on or off for your council as a whole:

Setting What it controls
Publish WordPress / CouncilPapers Sites Whether your council's public portal is visible at all
Publish Council Address Whether the council's address appears on the public portal
Publish Councillor Descriptions Whether councillors' public descriptions are shown
Publish Councillor Declarations Whether declarations of interest are shown
Publish Councillor Email Addresses Whether councillors' public email addresses are shown
Publish Councillor Phone Numbers Whether councillors' public phone numbers are shown
Publish Councillor Photos Whether councillors' photos are shown
Publish Councillor Party Memberships Whether party affiliations are shown
Publish Councillor Wards Whether ward assignments are shown

Note that Councillors have two email addresse fields in CouncilPapers. One is required, kept private, and used for log-on and communications by CouncilPapers. The other is optional and displayed to the Public. The same email address can be used for both.

These are council-wide settings. Turning off a setting means that information is hidden for all councillors, regardless of whether it has been entered against individual councillor records.

How individual councillor data interacts with these settings

Publication settings act as a gate. If a setting is turned off, the relevant information is never shown publicly — even if it has been entered for a councillor.

If a setting is turned on, the information is shown only if it has actually been entered for that councillor. A councillor with no photo uploaded will simply show no photo, even if Publish Councillor Photos is on.

One piece of information is always published regardless of settings: the councillor's name. This cannot be hidden.

If a specific councillor does not want certain information published — for example, they do not wish their photo to appear — the information should simply not be uploaded to their profile rather than turning off the council-wide setting.

Reviewing what is currently published

Use the Review Published Information button to see a full table of all councillors and the information currently associated with each one.

Columns with a grey background indicate settings that are currently turned off and therefore not published. This gives you a clear view of exactly what the public can see before making any changes.

Making changes

  1. Go to Council in the left-hand menu.
  2. Find the Publication Options section on the right-hand side.
  3. Click Edit Publication Preferences.
  4. Toggle the relevant settings on or off.
  5. Save your changes.

Changes take effect immediately on the public portal.

Last updated: 17 June 2026

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