We demand the answers from our authorities, local and also national

MY JOB title is an absolute mouthful, almost guaranteed to stop any conversation dead in its tracks.

But if you’re frustrated with rising rates of council tax, while public services dangle by a thread, roads left unrepaired, coronavirus tests run out or access to public information, I’m one of 150 or so reporters tasked with doing something about it in the UK.

I’m a local democracy reporter, or LDR, part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme funded by the BBC in partnership with local news providers.

What this means is, I am your voice for local change, and I won’t charge you a penny.

So whenever a pound is spent of your money, it’s my job to tell you how, why, where and what on. The who can be your council, police force, fire service, ambulance service or local NHS organisations. It can even be central Government.

Sometimes that can mean digging through the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner’s annual budget, and seeing they’ve allocated £50,000 for new T-shirts.

It means me and my colleagues are chasing down Freedom of Information requests to find out where money is spent that isn’t listed in your local authority’s annual budget.

That could be a path around a disused golf course that cost £117,000 of your money, meanwhile council employees are laid off and more services slashed, in an effort to save £9million.

It also means sitting through painstaking hours of public meetings, where council business is (hopefully) discussed out in the open – so you don’t have to. You’re very welcome, by the way.

We’ve even asked the Prime Minister for more Covid testing locally, and got it.

But we didn’t just stop there. We ask questions of your local health service when you lose a loved one. But we also champion the heroic efforts they perform, day in, day out.

And we demand answers from housing authorities, when you become too ill to make it down the steps of your home.

We let you know where new homes will be built, and if existing communities are happy about it.

This week is Journalism Matters Week, and I hope this article explains why it matters.