Covering Aberdeen City Council

Since joining the Evening Express as a political reporter in June 2010, I’ve dived straight into covering Aberdeen City Council. It’s been a hectic 10 months at a time when the whole of the public sector faces reducing budgets and politicians of all stripes seem ever more unpopular.

There have been running stories about cuts, especially since the change of Government in Westminster.

General Election 2010

The 2010 General Election was my first as a professional journalist. I covered campaigns and candidates in four seats, with the main focus on two constituencies – Scunthorpe and Brigg and Goole. During the course of the campaign, I interviewed leading figures including Ed Miliband and Damian Green, wrote features and covered issues. Among the ideas I pursued was a young voters panel and an interview with Political Betting editor Mike Smithson about the prospects of different results in the area.

On election night, I covered the counts for Scunthorpe and Brigg and Goole  from the Ancholme Leisure Centre. Through the night, I held an online CoverItLive chat with readers from the floor of the count, interviewed the candidates, reported on Twitter and filed stories to the Scunthorpe Telegraph website. Once the results were in, I filed copy for a special region-wide supplement published alongside the Scunthorpe Telegraph, Grimsby Telegraph and Lincolnshire Echo on May 7.

And as the General Election got underway, the Elliot Morley expenses story continued to develop. As Parliament was dissolved, Mr Morley retired as an MP after a turbulent 12 months and court proceedings edged onwards with an announcement on legal aid.

Local government reporting

Since starting with the Scunthorpe Telegraph, I have been given the chance to pursue one of my passions in journalism, covering and scrutinising politics. Here, that mostly means North Lincolnshire Council.

Two major projects are edging closer to reality in North Lincolnshire – the ambitious Lincolnshire Lakes scheme and a massive waste processing contract. I’ve gone behind the scenes on both projects to write backgrounders – and found two exclusive splashes.

Recently, I’ve covered the 2010/11 budget for North Lincolnshire Council, uncovered an interesting story about proposals to negotiate with travel firms to cut school truancy and reported on potential problems with a major infrastructure project in the region.

News stories of 2010

With the new year has come some brilliant stories, hopefully setting the trend for the rest of 2010. It’s been very busy and this is just a sample of my work.

Probably the most tragic story of the year came to a head in early April as the funerals of Nick Smith and Louis Wainright took place in Scunthorpe. The teenagers died after a night out in the town and, as has been widely reported, their deaths have been linked with the then “legal high” of Mephedrone. I covered Nick’s funeral on April 1 in print and online.

Elliot Morley part three: Charges

The Elliot Morley expenses story, which I have covered from the beginning, continues to rumble on. The Scunthorpe MP was charged with multiple counts of false accounting, which he denies, and I reported the story in depth. Later, Mr Morley made extraordinary comments to me about the suspension of his ‘golden goodbye’ went against the rules of “natural justice”. This story went national and was picked up by the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail,  The Independent and others.

Meanwhile, the campaign is up and running in Scunthorpe. We’ve had some fun with Ladbrokes seat-by-seat odds while waiting for the election to be called. I’ve lots of ideas for covering my first campaign as a professional journalist and plenty of them will appear here in the next few months.

To read my earlier coverage of the Elliot Morley story, see my first post here and my second post here.

After the expenses, before the election

The Elliot Morley expenses story has been the biggest of my time at the Scunthorpe Telegraph. I’ve covered it in depth since it broke in May and you can read the bulk of my copy on this post from 2009. Two of the biggest stories are also attached below.

The story has moved on quickly in the past few weeks. Nic Dakin was selected as the Labour candidate from a long list of 32 people from across the country. I’ve covered the selection process in depth since it got underway in September.

The selection of Mr Dakin also means Scunthorpe now has its three main candidates in place. As part of my build-up to the General Election, I produced a Question Time style feature over three days to test the views of Mr Dakin, Conservative Caroline Johnson and Liberal Democrat Neil Poole.

In late 2009 Mr Morley returned to the headlines at the heart of speculation he could face charges over his expense claims. The MP declined to confirm he was facing possible prosecution but denied reports lawyers were working to avoid CPS action through Parliamentary Privilege. Meanwhile, as 2010 dawned, the three main candidates fighting for votes in Scunthorpe got their campaigns running in earnest.

As we move closer to the election, I hope to look at the other seats in North Lincolnshire and go further in questioning the candidates for Scunthorpe – a seat which I think could be one of the most fascinating in the country given the context behind the Labour Party selection process.

Tour of Britain video

On Saturday, September 12, the Tour of Britain set off from Scunthorpe on its eight day race around the country. I covered the start and finish, in York, of the first stage, shooting video on the way on a Nokia N95 8gb. Together with other shots from my colleagues, I edited it together for the thisisscunthorpe.co.uk website.

Elliot Morley’s expenses

The expenses scandal which has engulfed the career of Scunthorpe MP Elliot Morley over the past two months has undoubtedly been the biggest story of my time at the Scunthorpe Telegraph so far.

On the day the story broke, I was the first and only reporter to interview Mr Morley about the allegations made against him. He told me the events of the day had left him “shattered”.

After initial coverage of the expenses story, a huge response fed into the Scunthorpe Telegraph website. An independent candidate, Stuart Maw, came forward and voters told me they had lost faith in their MP.

But Mr Morley said the reaction reaching him from voters had been more mixed. He signalled his intention to fight on and said he would clear his name.

But, despite his hope for vindication, on May 30 Mr Morley announced he would not seek re-election as Scunthorpe MP. Mr Morley said again he had made a genuine error. Tackling this story alongside a big press gathering was a new experience and one I hope to repeat again soon.

Following the announcement, I worked through the weekend to find out if Mr Morley’s move would be enough to satisfy his constituents. It quickly became clear the anger in Scunthorpe had not lessened in the weeks since the scandal broke.

In the days after the announcement, I kept in close touch with my contacts on the story to gauge feeling. For the first time since the story broke, Labour Party people began to talk about the story with ex-Scunthorpe MP John Ellis revealing his disappointment.

The release of all MPs’ expenses data led to another huge day’s work on the story. I trawled through the expenses documents in detail, uncovering thousands of pounds of claims made by Mr Morley and North Lincolnshire’s other MPs.

The story continued with more revelations showing Mr Morley had repaid another £20,000 after mistakenly claiming for mortgage capital in breach of House of Commons rules. Despite the latest trouble, the Labour group on North Lincolnshire Council stood by the MP’s decision to stay until the next election.

I am still following this story as it develops. A new Labour candidate will soon be selected, the Metropolitan Police may yet probe Mr Morley’s expenses and the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards John Lyons is yet to report on the affair.

The Toll Too Far campaign

Since last September I’ve written thousands of words in dozens of stories on our campaign against rising charges on the Humber Bridge. Toll Too Far launched in the face of renewed efforts by the Humber Bridge Board to increase tolls from £2.70 to £2.90 each way for cars and from £18.30 to £19.90 each way for the heaviest lorries.

The Bridge Board has to raise tolls to finance a historic £330-million construction debt and many campaigners believe this means the Government has to be the main target of the efforts to see the Humber Bridge tolls scrapped or significantly reduced.

After the initial launch, I wrote daily stories looking at the business, health and economic impacts of the Humber Bridge charges.

Feature spreads

As well as writing regular news features and backgrounders with other stories, occasionally I get the chance to focus on stories and subjects not necessarily right at the top of the Scunthorpe agenda.

An interview with economic big thinker Charles Lewis and a behind the scenes look at JobCentre Plus highlighted continuing economic worries.

Just a short time before the expenses trouble hit, I interviewed Scunthorpe MP Elliot Morley about climate change and his then role as President of Globe, an organisation of legislators and parliamentarians from countries across the world.

A new innovation in recent months is the ‘weekend feature’. Reporters working a weekend shift also contribute a feature on something going on in North Lincolnshire. I’ve visited Scunthorpe Obedience and Training Club, which teaches dog athletics, and the Brigg Beer Festival.

I interviewed British boxing legend Nigel Benn and researched the two giant Royal Navy aircraft carriers being partly built with Scunthorpe steel.