Bristol City Council employees targeted with violence and aggression
15:13, 20 Mar 2025
Bristol library staff have been threatened with a shotgun, chased down the streets with machetes, subjected to physical violence and stalked, a council meeting was told.
The firearm incident happened last summer at St George library when a man asked a female member of staff to print off 'explicit' images.
When she refused, he left and was sent a warning letter but the man later returned with the gun, although no shots were fired, Bristol City Council’s human resources committee heard.
Stunned councillors said they could not believe libraries were a 'den of violence'.
Officers said many people’s behaviour had changed since the pandemic and that they were generally much more aggressive towards the authority’s employees, including at the citizen service point in Temple Street.
The committee was discussing the council’s health, safety and wellbeing annual report which said the number of incidents had actually dropped in 2024/25 and was continuing to reduce year on year.
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It said: “This includes all types of incidents including violence and aggression to staff.
“Most of the physical violence is linked to pupils.
“Most of the verbal aggression is related to service users and public interaction with our workforce.”
The report said 45 employees were absent from work during the year because of a work-related injury and 81 people – staff, members of the public and pupils – needed hospital treatment for an injury.
Cllr Zoe Peat (Labour, Avonmouth & Lawrence Weston) asked why almost half of the 640 incidents, including 127 involving violence and 120 of aggression, in the first three quarters of 2024/25 were in the growth and regeneration directorate, one of four in the council’s structure.
All four injuries between April and December last year that were classed as 'reportable incidents' were also in that department, as were four of the six recorded as a 'traumatic event', with the other two in the resources team.
Head of corporate health, safety and wellbeing Christina Czarkowski-Crouch replied: “Part of that was on the back of Barton House [evacuation] and some of the stresses of those issues.
“The other part is it would be at our citizen service point where it’s quite high and also the library service.
“Generally members of the public, their behaviours have changed post-Covid and people behave in a different way, so at times they act much more aggressively.
“At times in libraries we’ve had instances of physical violence. We’ve had people chased down the street with machetes.
“It is people who have a number of issues and then come into our public spaces.”
She said council bosses worked with individual sites to ensure employees were supported and protected as much as possible.
Conservative group leader Cllr Mark Weston said: “It’s surprising that libraries are a den of violence.”
He asked where the incidents were happening in the growth and regeneration and resources directorates.
Ms Czarkowski-Crouch said: “In resources it’s to do with physical violence at the citizens service point but also our legal service who deal with a lot of aggression because they deal with sensitive issues.
“People get frustrated. The line in the sand has moved, post-covid, and whereas people used to act with restraint, they don’t have that restraint any longer and quite often our staff are at the front of that aggression.
“We’ve done a lot of intervention work with staff to make them feel safe.”
Unison branch secretary Paula Sharley said: “A really horrible thing happened to a colleague at St George library. A gentleman asked if she could help him print off some pictures.
“He said they were explicit and she said no, she couldn’t do that. He got a warning letter and then came back with a shotgun.
“The gentleman had mental health issues. She was off for two weeks. That’s the sort of behaviour we get in libraries.
“It’s not just on occasion anymore, it’s definitely changed since Covid. It’s a change in the attitude of the public.
“People say and do what they want to us. We had a case in the past where there was a stalking incident which was very unpleasant.”
Cllr Peat said: “That’s horrendous.”