🔄 Closed Loops, Open Questions: When Oversight Turns Into Overlap?
When Councillors Wear Two Hats & MPs Look The Other Way
Back in 2022, A Crowle, North Lincs, resident contacted the then local MP, Conservative Andrew Percy, about a local drainage issue that continues to affect the local community: the now-infamous “mystery drain.” His response, via his parliamentary assistant, was telling. They too were “frustrated,” apparently, with the Isle of Axholme Drainage Board for failing to provide answers. But here’s where the water gets murky: one of the sitting members of that same drainage board was, and still is, Ward Councillor Julie Reed — who, according to her own Register of Interests, had previously worked in Percy’s office.
So when our former MP was ‘frustrated’ by local drainage answers — was that frustration rooted in real concern, or political convenience?
🚩 To recap:
A constituent raises an issue with an MP.
The MP expresses frustration with a board.
That board contains one of his own staff members.
That might raise eyebrows on its own. But it doesn’t stop there.
🕵️♂️ The Drainage Board: Who’s Scrutinising Whom?
Cllr Reed is a member of the Isle of Axholme Drainage Board, with Cllr Ian Bint acting as “NLC representative to the Isle of Axholme and North Nottinghamshire Water Level Management Board”, according to his register of interests. Both are Conservative ward councillors. And both have had direct or indirect influence over decisions regarding drainage, land use, and infrastructure in North Lincolnshire. These same individuals are connected, either by position or political proximity, to the very systems we’re supposed to be holding to account.
Now consider this quote from North Lincolnshire Council’s own 2019 Local Flood Risk Management Strategy:
“Close cooperation and partnership working is vital in managing flood risk. North Lincolnshire Council has built strong collaborative relationships with Risk Management Authorities (RMAs) including the Environment Agency, Severn Trent Water, and the Isle of Axholme and North Nottinghamshire Water Level Management Board.”
Collaborative? Certainly. But where’s the transparency? Where’s the independent scrutiny?
😲 It gets worse.
In a July 2023 article published by The Guardian, it was revealed that Severn Trent Water has been actively recruiting former regulators from Ofwat — the very organisation that is supposed to keep them in check. At least nine employees at Severn Trent previously worked at Ofwat, including Shane Anderson, Director of Strategy and Regulation, and Jonathan Ashley, Head of Economic Regulation. Both held senior positions at the regulator.
This kind of regulatory ‘revolving door’ undermines public confidence. So when councillors advise me to direct complaints to Ofwat, one has to wonder: is Ofwat really an independent watchdog, or just another cog in the same interconnected machine?
We have water companies hiring their regulators. Councillors who sit on drainage boards. Drainage boards that don’t answer basic public questions. MPs who once employed the councillors. And all of it wrapped up in what’s called “collaborative governance.”
🗳️ A Voting Record That Speaks Volumes
To understand how decisions affecting our local environment may be shaped, it's worth examining the environmental voting record of our former Conservative MP for Brigg and Goole, Andrew Percy.
While it’s easy to shrug off parliamentary voting as distant politics, these decisions shape the very issues now unfolding at our doorstep — especially when local representatives are drawn from the same ideological pool.
According to TheyWorkForYou, Percy's voting record on key environmental issues includes:
❌ Generally voted against improving environmental water quality (0 votes for, 3 votes against, 3 absences)
❌ Generally voted against measures to prevent climate change (5 votes for, 20 votes against)
❌ Generally voted against improving biodiversity (0 votes for, 4 votes against)
❌ Generally voted against improving air quality (0 votes for, 2 votes against)
❌ Generally voted against the preservation of environmental protections after Brexit (2 votes for, 6 votes against)
🔎 What Andrew Percy’s Record Reveals
This record, spanning more than a decade, shows a clear pattern: prioritising deregulation and economic infrastructure over environmental safeguards. When we consider that Councillor Julie Reed, a current member of the Isle of Axholme Drainage Board and North Lincs Council, previously worked in Mr Percy’s parliamentary office (as declared in her Register of Interests), it’s not unreasonable to ask whether these policy alignments have trickled down into local governance — and how that might shape decisions about water, drainage, and development in our area.
📌 It’s not just about flooding, planning, or drainage. It’s about accountability. Or the increasing lack of it.
In a functioning democracy, there must be clear lines between scrutiny and complicity. If we allow those lines to blur, we risk turning our institutions into echo chambers — where everyone is connected, everyone is accountable to someone else, and no one is accountable to the public.
📌 This isn’t about political point-scoring. It’s about the public’s right to answers. And those answers are long overdue.
If public authorities, elected officials, and regulators are entangled rather than independent, how can local residents ever expect transparent answers — let alone accountability?
❗ If we can't trust scrutiny from within, maybe it's time we demand it from outside — loudly, publicly, and persistently.
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👉 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?