Eddie Bisknell

Eddie is an excellent example of an LDRS reporter who goes above and beyond. He does not just sit in meetings but instead picks up on themes, investigates them outside of the council chamber and brings them to life. In the first story (“The plight of Derbyshire's forgotten children 'lost in the noise'”), Eddie spotted a spike in the number of Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman cases involving school pupils under Derbyshire County Council’s remit - all relating to Education Health and Care Plans. All the reports were anonymised, so Eddie went to work tracking down families who would be named and pictured, which was no easy feat. He ensured a right to reply to all the issues covered, of which there were many. He liaised with the newsdesk and print team to work up the feature into a powerful front page which we timed to coincide with the return of pupils to schools for the new academic year. 

In the one his pieces (“Behind the GP's door: We observe a day at a Derby surgery on the NHS frontline”), Eddie made use of the doctor contacts he had made during the pandemic to secure full access to a GP surgery for a day. This access would not have been possible without Eddie's contacts. The topic of long waiting lists and difficulties getting a GP appointment were top of the news agenda at the time, so Eddie worked quickly to localise the story in a very impactful way. There was no need for copy approval or questions in advance because Eddie had worked hard to earn the trust of the medics at the site. The feature Eddie wrote was full of colour and detail and genuinely offered a look behind the GP’s door. 

Another of his stories (“Derbyshire Dales council pursued land deal with convicted drug dealer for months”) was a perfect example of working collaboratively with a campaign group and making use of Freedom of Information requests in an investigative way. The group had a treasure trove of documents and emails but they did not have the time or skill to analyse them as Eddie could, so they passed them on to him. He discovered that not only had the council pursued a deal with a convicted drug dealer, they had been untruthful with public statements and had purposely held back facts. Eddie worked hard with the Reach legal team to get this story over the line and sifted through all the documents to establish a coherent timeline - all while fact-checking every detail.