The publisher of the Enfield Independent, Newsquest Media, will be one of the main beneficiaries of a scheme whereby the BBC will spend £8 million a year to improve the reporting capabilities of local newspapers throughout the UK. One of the 37 reporter posts which will be "embedded" with Newsquest titles has been allocated to the Enfield Independent and will cover the boroughs of Enfield, Barnet and Haringey.
The role of the "local democracy reporters" - 150 in all - will be to "significantly improve the reporting on councils and public institutions, leading to greater public accountability for our local politicians." Their output will also be available for use by the BBC. Conversely, the BBC will provide reporting, data and media output to the local newspaper groups.
The fact that the 150 posts will mostly be embedded in the "traditional" local press is a disappointment for some "hyperlocal" publishers, who in some areas can justifiably claim to be providing far more comprehensive coverage of local politics. (I don't claim that PGC is among these - there are some truly impressive "hyperlocals", whether online or in print, in various parts of London and the UK as a whole.)
The crucial factor explaining why the "local democracy reporters" have gone to established papers appears to be that they meet the requirement for having proper HR functions. No doubt this is true and would be a problem for most hyperlocals, but another criterion was that the successful bidders must have "a strong track record of relevant journalism in the area they were applying to cover”. I have some difficulty understanding how the Enfield Independent can claim to meet this criterion. Its coverage of local political issues is these days practically zero, apart from regurgitation of some press releases put out by Enfield Council. The Independent used to print readers' letters, many of which related to local politics, but since the closure of its superior rival, the Gazette, almost all of the contributions on the letters page are on national or international subjects.
If we can ignore Enfield for the moment, in both our neighbouring boroughs there are very serious current political issues. The Haringey Development Vehicle is a massively important and controversial issue that is causing ructions in the local Labour Party. Barnet Council's outsourcing of most of its functions to Capita is causing all sorts of problems and scandals, not least the decimation of the borough's public library service, especially the children's libraries (which has cost more than it has "saved"). And what to make of a council that passes a motion as pathetic as "Sadiq Khan is an Enemy of the People of Barnet"?)
Whatever your view on these issues, they are important, there are arguments on both sides which need to be aired, and there are enough ongoing developments to fill several pages of a weekly paper, but they get scarcely a mention in the Newsquest titles. It is possible to follow these issues on various local and London-wide blogs and Twitter feeds, but that rather proves my point.
So, does the Enfield Independent have a "strong track record"? I think not, but hopefully, once the new reporter is in place, we'll start to see an improvement.
