*Blog Link for the Full version.
As we roll into Easter weekend, one thing is noticeably absent (besides common sense):
📩 A response to our FOI request to the Isle of Axholme Drainage Board.
On 18 March, a formal request was sent.
On 2 April, a follow-up visit was made in person.
🧍♂️ We were assured: “Someone will get back to you.”
And as of today, Friday 18 April, the only thing we’ve received… is silence.
Meanwhile, in the Severn Trent camp…
An EIR request submitted on 25 March has been met with a polite delay:
“We need more time. It’s very complex. You’ll hear from us by mid-May.”
Oh really?
Complex, perhaps. Inconvenient, certainly.
But maybe the real reason is that too many questions are finally converging at once.
And of course, there’s still the unresolved matter of a certain communications manager who, when asked for a copy of the SOCOTEC report, responded with:
“This is quite an unusual request… What’s your reason for asking?”
We're not sure that’s how transparency works, Timothy.
🛑 Who you gonna call?
📂 FOI-BUSTERS, that’s who.
Armed with:
📜 The Environmental Information Regulations 2004
📜 The Freedom of Information Act 2000
📜 The right to request access to data about public works affecting private lives
...and a healthy distrust of:
🚫 Delays
🚫 Vagueness
🚫 “Courtesy meetings” no one logs
🧠 And just for the record:
The Drainage Board has councillors on it.
The council has issued a vaguely worded “cease contact” letter.
Severn Trent is digging up land that contains a mystery watercourse no one wants to talk about.
Cameras are now watching over our streets, and our homes (click).
Coincidence? We’ll let you decide.
📢 We’ll keep pressing. You keep watching.
📚 Read the full archive at mickeyjoe1.substack.com
📽️ Video archive: https://youtube.com/@MickeyJoe-z6r
👉 If you feel strongly about the issues raised in this article, then consider sending an e-mail to Crowle Town Council (clerk@crowleandealandcouncil.org) or North Lincolnshire Council (customerservice@northlincs.gov.uk) or even Councillor Julie Reed, (Cllr.juliereed@northlincs.gov.uk), and ask them why are residents being silenced?