DUP councillor says he was subjected to ‘unacceptable’ abuse after controversy over leisure facilities access for transgender persons

​The admissions policy for leisure facilities became the centre of a war of words between Lagan Valley TUV party member Lorna Smyth and DUP representatives.

A document from the Ards and North Down Borough Council website on admissions to leisure facilities was widely circulated last year on social media, including by Lorna Smyth, before being taken down from the website.

The document stated: “Transgender persons are welcome to use either appropriate single-sex toilets and changing facilities, or separate accessible toilets and changing facilities as determined by an individual’s needs and at the discretion of management.

“There is no requirement for a Gender Recognition Certificate for access to single-sex toilets, changing facilities or activities, and a GRC will not be requested.”

Ards and North Down Borough councillors, led by the DUP, in December said they had not seen this document, and had at no stage been asked to vote upon it.

At the start of this month councillors received an apology from council officials on the document being used without a vote.

At the January meeting of the council’s Community and Wellbeing Committee, council officers published their explanation.

A report states: “Procedures were amalgamated into one admissions procedure in 2018 for the opening of Ards Blair Mayne Wellbeing and Leisure Complex in early 2019. Around the same time as a result of a query, HR, Leisure and Equality together considered how access should be managed in relation to transgender persons, and the document was amended as a result.

“The document title was also changed from ‘procedures’ to ‘policy’ and so should have been subject to the policy approval process at that point. Initial investigation as to why this happened has suggested that this may have been simply overlooked.”

DUP Alderman Robert Adair said at the meeting that the abuse he received on social media on the subject of the council leisure document was the worst he had ever experienced.

He said: “This issue first hit the headlines through social media, and many councillors around this chamber, particularly those in the Community and Wellbeing Committee, were faced with online abuse. I as an elected representative have faced online abuse over the years, but nothing as derogatory as what I faced in relation to this issue.

“Inflammatory accusations were made and attacks on my character, and on others in this committee. People think because you are a councillor and an elected official they can speak to you in whatever way they want, but some of the accusations hurled at members of this committee were vile.”

TUV party member Lorna Smyth had said in a post on her Facebook account in December: “The general claim appears to be that councillors have not seen this policy and it has been implemented without their knowledge. I for one question this narrative.

“The document these councillors are suddenly up in arms about was the policy which was updated in January 2024. The very same clauses in the January 2024 document exist in the admissions policy from August 2022. Surely our local elected councillors would have oversight of this document in the last two and a half years, and if not why not?

“Why did it take social media interest to get these elected representatives to spring to action, and can they explain why this document has remained unchanged since at least 2022, if not before, without anyone raising concerns that a man who wants to identify as a woman can enter female-only facilities without challenge?”