I hope everyone had a fun filled Easter with their families despite some awful weather. I really enjoyed the long weekend with my family especially watching the excitement of my grandchildren doing the Easter hunt and their delight at finding lots of chocolate.

It’s been a difficult few weeks, with both the council and the HSCP facing significant financial challenges. For me, what has been particularly challenging has been some of the misinformation and untruths that have wrongly been portrayed as fact concerning some of my colleagues.

I did not have it easy during my first term as an elected member and I will never forget that time as it was so hard for myself and my family. That is why I would always support any other female colleague who was suffering in the same way, irrespective of which party they represent.

As a woman, a mother and a grandmother of girls, I believe we should always stand together and support one another. We should call out any bad behaviour that is aimed at women. I would be the first person to offer support as I know how challenging it can be to feel targeted. It will always be a positive when sexist behaviour is called out for what it is and we empower women to stand up against it but there is, as always, a balance to be had.

The problem arises when it is being used for political point scoring or to smear someone’s name. I will not stand by and allow that to happen as it takes away from our ability to fight for gender equality.

At a recent council meeting, two of my male colleagues called for a training session to help new councillors to understand a policy that was causing confusion.

There are at least eight councillors who are new either being elected for the first time of newly re-elected after a break, this is a mixture of men and women who are young and slightly older, so you can imagine my complete surprise when two councillors later appeared on Twitter claiming they had been specifically targeted because they were young and female.

This is an appalling distortion of the facts and in trying hard to discredit some male councillors, all they have done is weaken our power by misrepresenting the comments in a way that allowed them to claim they had been victims causing damage to themselves and harm to the men who they named.

As a woman, I am angry because this has belittled and demeaned the fight to eradicate real misogyny from politics and make it a more attractive place for women to work and make a difference.