Institutional Opacity? The Two Faces Of North Lincolnshire Council
A case study in real-world double standards
18 May, 2025:
Transparency shouldn’t be selective — but in North Lincolnshire, it clearly is!
When SSE Renewables holds meetings with North Lincolnshire Council, everything is above board: public venues, named councillors, published notes.
When Severn Trent Water is involved? Meetings vanish, minutes are nowhere, and accountability collapses.
In July 2020, while most residents were focused on public health and lockdowns, Cllr Julie Reed (also a Crowle Town Councillor) was quietly appointed to a senior cabinet position overseeing rural affairs.
Yet in the years since, her silence on infrastructure failures and road safety in Crowle, North Lincolnshire, raises questions about who she really represents.
While residents were told to wear masks, isolate, and distance, that summer, North Lincolnshire Council’s cabinet posed shoulder to shoulder — no face coverings, no spacing (click to see the article).
The same cabinet members who today avoid scrutiny over infrastructure and contractor behaviour were already governing by a different set of rules.
Phorograph: North Lincolnshire Council, 2020. Reed is sitting at the rear next to Council Leader Rob Waltham
🕰️ Let’s Reconstruct the Timeline:
📆 Key COVID-19 Rules in England – July 2020
Social distancing of at least 1 metre (with mitigation) or 2 metres (preferably) was official government guidance.
Face coverings became mandatory in shops on 24 July 2020 — just 4 days before the article was published.
Masks were already recommended in other indoor settings (e.g. meetings, offices, enclosed spaces) prior to this under workplace safety guidance.
Councils across the UK were holding remote meetings via Zoom or with strict spacing rules.
📍 July 2020 Cabinet Reshuffle
Julie Reed is reassigned to Children & Families
Rob Waltham (Council Leader) takes over Connectivity
Yet no public-facing transparency about this shift at the time
✅ Implication: Residents unaware of shifting accountability — who's actually responsible for what becomes deliberately murky.
This is not the only example…
📍 October 2019 Letter (DfT funding)
Signed by Cllr Julie Reed as Cabinet Member for Connectivity.
Letterhead includes the North Lincolnshire Council logo, suggesting it's an official council document.
But the sender’s address is the Conservative Group Office, not the neutral council department.
✅ Implication: Politically aligned communications masquerading as non-partisan council correspondence — misleading, especially to the average resident.
📍 February 2025 Conservative Group Newsletter
Features both Waltham and Reed, claiming to be “scrutinising” the Severn Trent works.
Delivered to households, featuring political branding — but styled in a way that could easily be mistaken as coming from the council itself.
No mention that these are party-political communications vs. neutral civic updates.
Councillors Reed & Ian Bint are also members of the local drainage board, as declared on their respective Register Of Interests
- a potential conflict of interest.
✅ Implication: Misleading optics — public believes there is official council scrutiny, when in fact it’s a party-political publication with no binding oversight.
📍 2023 - 2025 Meetings With SSE Renewables
When the company is SSE Renewables, North Lincolnshire Council hosts formal meetings, publishes agendas, and invites community input.
Yet no such transparency exists for meetings involving Severn Trent Water or the Isle of Axholme and North Nottinghamshire Water Level Management Board (WLMB).
Only silence, secrecy — and no paper trail.
Let’s Break This Down:
✅ What the SSE Meeting PDFs Show:
Held at public venues (Crowle Community Hub / Community Centre) — accessible
Chaired by Cllr Julie Reed in her official capacity
Attended by other councillors (e.g. Ian Bint)
Documented as “community liaison” events with:
Published agendas
Named council representatives
Notes available on the council website
⛔ In Stark Contrast to Severn Trent:
No formal community meetings
No public records or meeting notes
When asked about such meetings? Council and drainage board both say:
“No minutes taken”
“No agenda available”
“Informal discussion” or “not our responsibility”
📌 Why This Is Damning:
We now have direct, side-by-side evidence:
This is a textbook double standard — the kind of inconsistency that strongly supports claims of:
Lack of accountability
Preferential corporate treatment
Undermining public transparency obligations
This is selective transparency — accountability for energy projects, evasion for water infrastructure. The same councillor, the same community, two completely different standards.
If agendas can be published for SSE and Keadby Windfarm, then why not for Severn Trent Waters’ major infrastructure works tearing up Crowle’s roads, and disrupting residents’ homes and lives?
Why is one firm granted public-facing legitimacy, while another operates in the shadows?
It’s time to end the selective silence. Residents deserve the same transparency — no matter which company is at the table.
Transparency isn’t optional — and residents deserve the same treatment, no matter which utility is involved.
This isn’t a paperwork oversight — it’s institutional opacity!
💥 Scrutiny is not a smear.
💥 Accountability is not an attack.
💥 Integrity is tested — not assumed.
💬 Enjoyed this post? Want more on the North Lincolnshire Council / Crowle Town Council and Severn Trent Water saga?
If you’d like to see future updates — including more revelations, evidence, and FOI fallout — please consider:
✅ Subscribing to the blog (it's free)
✅ Leaving a comment — We read every one
✅ Sharing this post with a friend, neighbour, journalist, or (especially) Severn Trent...
Because we’re just getting started. 🕵️♂️💼
📢 We’ll keep pressing. You keep watching.
📚 Full Blog Archive - (Click)
✍️ Sign & share the petition here
📽️ Video archives: https://youtube.com/@MickeyJoe-z6r
https://www.youtube.com/@ArchiveOfAccountability
👉 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?