The Leader of Newport City Council has deleted her Twitter and Facebook accounts in an effort to "separate the personal and political".

Labour councillor Debbie Wilcox, who also represents the Gaer ward, told the South Wales Argus there was no specific issue which had led to her deleting her social media.

The council leader has said she will be setting up public accounts to enable her to communicate with the people of Newport.

Cllr Wilcox said: "I’m currently reviewing my personal use of social media and I’m in the process of setting up public accounts to communicate with the general public.

"It’s about the separation of the personal and the political which I’d recommend to all colleagues.

"As a public figure you can expect to hear the best and worst of things about what people think - social media is just one aspect.

"I hear lots of good things and have many compliments about what I do as well as criticisms.

"It’s just about making a clearer distinction between a private and public profile - as a former Media Studies teacher I am a great advocate of communication."