The women’s challenges on gender and trans rights prompted a councillor walk out last year that made national headlines
16:38, 27 Jan 2026Updated 19:05, 27 Jan 2026
Councillors leave Full Council meeting.mp4
Two women are taking Bristol City Council to a judicial review because they have been barred from attending full council meetings for six months, after heated scenes at City Hall last year.
The two are members of a group called ‘Women of Wessex’ – a gender critical group – who sparked controversy and national attention when they went to Bristol City Council meetings last autumn and asked the council about its policy on transgender people.
Their questions and statements prompted some councillors to walk out of one meeting and, at a second meeting, councillors held up placards while the women were again asking questions from the public gallery.
But it was an incident that happened within City Hall but outside the council chamber that led to two women being barred from attending full council meetings for six months – a ban they are now challenging in the courts.
The two women are Dr Phoebe Beedell and Wendy Stephenson. Dr Beedell is a retired academic at Bristol University and UWE. Wendy Stephenson was, at the time, the chair of the city council’s independent panel that deals with how much councillors are paid.
The council said the two women confronted two councillors outside the meeting and “were intimidating”. Ms Stephenson was stripped of that post and her position on the panel after the incident, and the pair were told they were barred from attending full council meetings for six months.
READ MORE: Bristol councillors walk out of meeting over ‘offensive’ commentsREAD MORE: Bristol Green councillors wield pro-trans placards as war of words with women’s rights activists reignites
The two women have since hired leading London law firm Conrathe Gardner to instigate judicial review proceedings against the city council in the High Court.
Conrathe Gardner has taken on several high profile legal challenges around the issue of transgender politics, including a discrimination claim against the Girl Guides which prompted last month’s announcement that the organisation would no longer accept trans girls or women as members.
The Women of Wessex group began challenging Bristol City Council’s leaders and councillors at full council meetings in the second half of 2025 after April’s Supreme Court ruling on biological sex and gender, which they said now conflicts with the city council’s policies on transgender rights.
The group made statements and asked questions of the council, prompting a number of Green Party councillors to walk out in protest at a meeting in September, before another bust-up in November when some Green Party councillors held up placards as the women spoke from the public gallery.
Some Green Party councillors walk out of a full council meeting in September 2025, as gender critical speakers ask questions and make statements during public question time(Image: Alex Seabrook)
A spokesperson for the legal team taking on the case at Conrathe Gardner said they would challenge the council’s version of events. They said only Dr Beedell was involved in that conversation outside the chamber, ‘and her behaviour was in no sense intimidatory’.
They claimed the only reason for the ban was to prevent the women from continuing to make representations at full council meetings.
“This is an important case in the balancing of trans rights and gender critical views and has implications for the way in which councils treat democratic debate with members of the public, and the need for councils to bring their policies into line with the Equality Act and the For Women Scotland decision,” he added.
READ MORE: Calls for respect at Bristol City Council meetings after trans rights walkoutREAD MORE: Old Vic reassures trans visitors after Supreme Court ruling
The women will tell a High Court judge that the ban violates their human rights because it ‘interferes with their ability to express their views directly to democratically elected members on a matter of significant public interest’.
They also claim the ban and ending Ms Stephenson’s position on the remuneration panel were legally unjust, because the women weren’t given the opportunity to make representations before the decision was made.
“To be banned from City Hall with no warning and no chance to defend myself is even more of a shock than the childish and undemocratic behaviour of the councillors in the meetings,” said Dr Beedell.
James Gardner, a partner at Conrathe Gardner LLP, is acting for the claimants. “Our clients have views, which, although lawful and in line with most of the British public, appear to differ from those held by the majority of Green Party councillors.
“Do these elected men and women have no ability to listen calmly to opinions they disagree with or engage in thoughtful debate? The council’s conduct breaches its own Code of Conduct and its own constitution: it’s not only shocking but also clearly unlawful,” he added.
Bristol City Council declined to comment on the issue because the legal case is now active, but when the council imposed the ban and sacked Ms Stephenson from her panel position last month, a spokesperson said: “Anyone holding a position of authority in our city is rightly expected to uphold the highest standards of behaviour.
Some Green Party councillors hold up placards during a full council meeting in November 2025, as gender critical speakers ask questions and make statements during public question time(Image: Bristol Green Party)
“On two occasions during recent meetings of Full Council, the behaviour of the former Chair and Panel Member of the Independent Remuneration Panel (IRP) towards councillors fell below these standards. The latter of these incidents saw two councillors confronted in a way that both found intimidating.
“We encourage individuals and groups to express their views on matters in public meetings and support democratic processes for doing so in multiple formats, but we do insist that people do so respectfully.
“In falling below these standards of behaviour, it has been decided that the position of the former Chair and Panel member of the IRP has become untenable and the monitoring officer has taken the decision to remove them from this position with immediate effect,” he added.
“This individual and one other have also been advised they will not be permitted to attend Full Council for six months as a consequence of their intimidating behaviour. This is an approach adopted in previous situations where people have sought to intimidate elected representatives in City Hall,” he added.
No one from the Green Party was willing to comment on the legal case, but a source close to the councillors involved, who declined to be named, told Bristol Live: “People aren’t banned arbitrarily, or even necessarily on the word of one or two councillors.
“The incident happened in front of many people and there were numerous complaints about the incident from members of all political parties and others that resulted in the ban,” they added.
READ MORE: Bristol City Council leader criticises Supreme Court ruling on trans rightsREAD MORE: Bristol councillor resigns from the Greens over City Hall trans protests
It’s not the first time campaigners have been banned from council meetings or indeed City Hall itself. Two years ago four members of the community union Acorn were banned from City Hall for six months for disrupting a full council meeting in December 2023.
They had protested the treatment of the residents of council tower block Barton House, who had been evacuated, and one of the four, Shaban Ali, was a resident of Barton House himself. The ban meant, for a few months, that the council had banned Mr Ali from living in his own home and from going to City Hall to meetings for tenants to update residents.
