COUNCIL workers in Southampton are being warned to be on their guard after one was targeted and harassed after leaving work.

The council’s Chief Executive has said there is a “growing campaign” against the council taking children into care, and has warned all members of staff to “remain vigilant” in an internal email seen by the Daily Echo.

And while she has not told council workers to remove their ID badges when outside of the Civic Centre, she has advised staff that they “may wish to remove it if you feel safer in doing so”.

The incident happened when the male worker was leaving the Civic Centre and was approached by a woman.

In the email, Ms Baxendale says the woman was accusing him of “wrongly taking her children into care” and followed him to the nearby ASDA supermarket.

When he left the supermarket she was waiting for him and then tried to stop him leaving in his car.

It is currently unclear as to whether it was an isolated incident or part of campaigning by an unidentified group who have sat outside the Civic Centre - and other council halls in Hampshire - protesting and claiming children are being wrongly put into care.

In April protestors gathered outside the Civic Centre with signs reading “stop forced adoption and fostering”, with one man dressed as Superman and shouting through a megaphone part of the New Fathers For Justice group.

The Daily Echo attempted to contact the group about Friday’s incident, but no-one responded to our queries.

In her email sent to council staff and workers, Ms Baxendale said: “While these incidents are fortunately quite rare, there has been a growing campaign against the council taking children into care which some of you may be aware of.

“I’m not suggesting that you remove your ID badge when outside the office – we should all be proud of working for and on behalf of this organisation - but you may wish to remove it if you feel safer in doing so.

She ends the email by advising council workers to call 999 if they feel in any immediate danger.

The city council refused to comment or confirm any further details, including the time of the incident on May 29.

Dan Jeffery, the council’s Labour cabinet member for children’s services, said: "condemned the incident, saying: “I understand these things can be very sensitive and emotional issues that can make people react in quite challenging ways but it is not acceptable for staff to have to feel that they are being personally made to feel that is being aggressive or hostile to them.

“Ultimately they have a job to do and they can only do that to the best of their abilities. It is not acceptable for this sort of behaviour.

"The idea that we are going around deliberately trying to take children into care just isn’t correct, we would always rather children were able to live at home in a safe environment but sadly that isn’t always the case.”

The Daily Echo contacted Hampshire Constabulary about the incident but the force was unable to find it due to a lack of information.