Local News Matters - Give me 500 words & we'll take it from there
Freelance NUJ member Michelle Edwards explains her work as a local campaigning journalist.
by Michelle Edwards, NUJ freelance member and columnist for the Waltham Forest Echo.
When I first telephoned the Waltham Forest Echo to pitch a column to the editor about my housing predicament, I was more or less certain of the outcome. A firm yes. By that point it was November 2016 and I had already run through a variety of articles that had pricked or attracted my interest.
A feature on a local dad of three – who got so fed up with living in cramped conditions and desperately needed to move but couldn't afford to buy – that he decided the only option was to build a new home himself. A news piece about a teaching assistant fighting against female genital mutilation. A front-page splash about a crowdfunding campaign to help "homeless Harry" who had been conned into leaving his native Slovakia and taking a non-existent job in the UK, ending up with no money, no friends or a place to stay.
And housing stuff. Lots of council housing stuff. Always a tale of residents fighting against eviction, mistreatment or being left in the dark about potential redevelopment and plans to toss them out.
It was a perfect fit for what I had in mind. A first-person column documenting what it is like to live through the demolition and phased redevelopment of the Marlowe Road estate in Walthamstow for the next five years. Brick broken down by bloody brick.
But my now editor, James Cracknell, wasn't feeling the pitch at first. Sure, he liked the idea of a local journalist writing about her lived experience. Plus, he already knew a bit about the estate having just read a press release on the plans. But. But. But. Would I be able to sustain a series his readers could engage with long-term without keeling over with boredom? Yes, I fired back. Absolutely. If the readers didn't engage, I was a shit journalist. Simple. "Hmm… Okay, let's see," he said. "Give me 500 words and we'll take it from there."
The column, Life on the Estate, was launched as a feature in December 2016 with a pic of me looking the worse for wear. No amount of make-up could cover up the bags of sheer exhaustion under my eyes. More than three years later, I'm pleased to say that I'm still penning "public-interest" pieces for the Echo.
Each month, I focus on one lead aspect of the redevelopment led by a hungry property developer and a cold Labour council. Decanting residents. Ejection of local businesses. The facade of resident engagement on the steering group committee and never-present ward councillors. The introduction of an unregulated district heating system – distributing heat generated at a centralised location through sets of insulated pipes for residential and commercial premises – which created fuel poverty among the poorest and vulnerable communities, and an exclusive on the planned closure of a historic library have all found their way into my copy.
Unquestionably, my proudest work has been the 2017 post-Grenfell fire safety investigations into Northwood Tower, a 21-storey block containing 99 homes. Exactly two months after Grenfell, the council announced sprinklers would be installed at council-owned blocks of six storeys or higher, as well as hostels and in sheltered housing at a cost of £5 million. Whoops, I meant our investigations into fire safety. My editor did some sterling work of his own. Two years on from the Grenfell disaster, he discovered that almost half of the council-owned tower blocks in the borough posed a "substantial" fire risk to residents.
Fearful of what was coming next, the council published a statement on its website and sent hand-delivered letters to the residents of Northwood Tower citing "misleading or inaccurate media reports". Naturally, I debunked this claptrap in my next column and beat the council at their own game by hand-delivering a copy of the rebuttal.
Turns out there was no need. Readers got in touch to tell me that they knew the Echo was fighting for them. They don't trust anything coming from the council. But they do trust me and us at the paper. Damnit, those words meant so much, particularly when journalists are always getting trashed. Everybody out here ain't phone hacking.
Leaving aside the column for a moment, I now have two ongoing campaigns that were kickstarted because of it. Trying to hold Waltham Forest to account has been exhausting. The submission of my freedom of information requests are almost always met with resistance and non-compliance.
Tired of my work being thwarted, I escalated varying breaches to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). While my complaints aren't always upheld, the ICO has handed down some fierce judgments which can be readily accessed on their website. But, to the annoyance of journalists across the UK, the body rarely takes enforcement action against persistent offenders.
Well, following a recent meeting I had with it, I think that may all be about to change. I won't say any more yet – I don't want to jinx matters. For now, be assured that I am being supported by the NUJ and campaigning for changes to the Freedom of Information Act. It simply isn't fit for purpose.
As if that call for a law change wasn't enough to contend with, I decided to stir up things in the energy market. District heating is being forced on households in new builds under the guise of being a "green" and sustainable option as part of Sadiq Khan's London Plan. A warning to stop the rollout appears to have fallen on deaf ears at City Hall.
On the estate, residents say their bills have exploded. I've interviewed the disabled people and the crying mothers who can't afford to heat their freezing homes. District heating customers can't switch suppliers and lack legal protections because the service isn't regulated.
Two years ago, about 450,000 households in the UK were district heating customers and that number is expected to grow as investment in energy-efficient technology increases. Does that sound fair to you? Fuel Poverty Action is helping me with this Samson-v-Goliath battle.
Another deadline is approaching, so I better get going. Hopefully, you've learned a little bit about what I do, locally – and why local news matters. We get paid to ask questions. We get paid to tell the stories of others. Unlike larger publishers, not only are we close to the audience's life, we are largely living it too. Well, I certainly am. My eviction is due, imminently!