Venturing out into the (not so) big, bad world

3:34pm Wednesday 8th October 2008

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I've been out a-meeting and a-greeting in the last few days, which is unusual.

Because we have comparatively few reporters for a comparatively large news patch, a lot of our story gathering is done from within the office, but this week was a bit different.

As Whipps Cross Hospital is to get a multi-million pound make-over, I went over to the maternity ward to have a look at it as it is now and to find out what the plans are for the (much needed) £3million it's to have bestowed on it.

It was actually very interesting and I came back with quite a lot of information but for a significant portion of the time, I had to restrain myself from going, "BABY!" in a high-pitched and unreservedly clucky manner.

Normally, I'm not a particularly broody person - in fact, I'd consider myself largely rational when it comes to children - but seeing a brand new baby, born just a few hours before, was enough to prompt the squeaky and irrational in me. I was nevertheless the picture of cool professionalism, mind you, and kept the cooing in check until I was safely out of earshot.

Slightly less pleasingly, I also attended a meeting on Monday with the four big cheeses in rubbish - that is, Cllr Bob Belam (member for environment), Martin Esom (chief exec of environment and regeneration), Paul Flight (divisional general manager, Kier Street Services) and Karim Khan (chairman, Kier Street Services) - plus a press officer.

I've done interviews with more than one person before - in fact, the tour of the maternity ward involved a meeting with two directors at the hospital - but never in quite such a concentrated fashion and never in a building that misleadingly calls itself Sycamore House. To me, the name is evocative of log cabins and cosy fires (I don't know why) rather than council offices, but I digress.

While I did welcome the opportunity to get some answers and maybe even wrap up the whole filthy streets saga (wishful thinking, perhaps...) it was pretty daunting to be faced with four suited-and-booted types (five, including the press officer) who clearly had specific answers they wanted to give, many of which were not to the questions I wanted to ask.

To be fair on them, they were very gracious about it and they did give up an hour of their time to speak to me but it was a little bit like being in front of a firing squad. A very polite, corporate firing squad...