A Tunbridge Wells councillor has been accused of bringing the “culture war” to the borough by asking the council leader if he thinks women can have penises.

He was accused of feeding into a “toxic, hostile” debate, but others argue the leader refused to answer an important question.

At a meeting of the full council on December 13, Cranbrook representative Cllr Sean Holden (Con) asked: “The leader of the Liberal Democrat party, Ed Davey MP, said that ‘quite clearly’ some women can have penises.

“Does the leader of the council agree with his party leader, and if so, does that mean Tunbridge Wells Borough Council (TWBC) will allow someone with a penis into women’s changing rooms, toilets and other all-women facilities in places controlled and run by TWBC?”

However, leader Cllr Ben Chapelard (Lib Dem) refused to directly answer, suggesting it was an attempt at a “gotcha question”.

“For most people, their gender identity matches their biological gender at birth, but there is a relatively small number of people out there where this is not the case,” he continued.

“Unfortunately this has become part of a wider debate, that’s become really toxic, hostile, and horrible, and we need to get past this to have a proper conversation with people and put people’s safety and dignity first.

“To date, TWBC has never had a single complaint raised about transgender people in any of the locations we own or we run, not one. Zero in total.

“There is no problem and therefore TWBC’s working practices do not need to change.

“What matters is dignity, safety and the wellbeing of all members of our community, and not the culture war that you are seeking to propagate,” he concluded, to a small applause.

The question came in the midst of national attention on issues of gender identity and single-sex spaces.

On December 8, the High Court decided that the UK government acted lawfully when it used its powers to block the passing of the controversial Scottish Gender Recognition Reform Bill.

Critics argued the law would have made it too easy for biological males to access all-women spaces in Scotland, and the national government overturned it.

Cllr Holden went on to ask Cllr Chapelard to survey all women members of the Weald Sports Centre in his Cranbrook ward as to whether they are comfortable with people using facilities in line with their gender identity rather than biological sex.

TWBC is currently running an online consultation on local women’s experiences of violence against women and girls, in collaboration with Sevenoaks and Tonbridge & Malling councils, as well as the county council and Kent Police.