Councillor behind anonymous social media posts about local plan adoption loses whip

Cllr Ruth Milsom - a Labour Party councillor representing the city's Crookes & Crosspool ward - apologised last month over a series of posts she made between May and July 2025.

It has since emerged that Labour has resolved to remove the councillor's whip for three months, according to a report from the BBC.

The posts - which were made on a local Facebook page - were exposed by a residents' group who oppose parts of the local plan that involve building on the city's green belt.

More than 3,500 new homes will be built across 14 green belt sites under the plan.

Save Chapeltown, Ecclesfield and Grenoside Community Group described Cllr Milsom's posting as "potentially misleading" and "politically charged".

Cllr Milsom later issued a public apology on 16 July 2025, acknowledging her authorship of the posts and explaining her rationale for posting anonymously.

She said she joined the group because she was concerned "about a degree of confusion around some aspects when the news first broke about the green belt requirement for the Local Plan".

"I wanted to help in ensuring that people were properly equipped with facts to participate in the formal consultation," she added.

She also said that after prior experience with planning applications, she "maybe became a bit obsessed with the requirement for arguments to be rooted in fact and worded in non-emotional language that ticks boxes for those receiving them".

While acknowledging that posting anonymously "is not good in certain respects", she explained that she wished to join the group as a concerned person who might have knowledge to bring to the situation, rather than with her "councillor hat" on.

"When I post on my councillor page, I think twice about every word I type, and often shrink from posting things altogether because I have already imagined negative comments that might appear," she said.

A council spokesperson said that - in line with council policy - they could not confirm whether complaint had been made against the councillor.

Cllr Milsom has been approached for comment.

Adam Carey