People / My 2018
My 2018: Frank Church
“I want to know what’s going on,” says Frank Church, who over the course of this year has sent dozens of Freedom of Information requests to Bristol City Council and other public bodies.
One of Church’s main topics of investigation has been Bristol Arena, with some of his main findings including that private talks of an arena at Filton started six months before the council claimed they were, and potential conflicts of interest around arena consultant Nigel Greenhalgh.
Church is the assumed name of a 21-year-old man who was born in Bristol but now lives in North Somerset, who told Bristol24/7 that he appreciates attempting to uncover the truth amind redacted official documents, while himself hiding behind a pseudonym.
is needed now More than ever
But one of the reasons behind his anonymity is that some of the secrets that his FOI requests might uncover go deeper than meetings behind closed doors, with the CIA and FBI joining YTL in Church’s list of acronyms that he quotes during our meeting.
“Who is benefitting?” Church asks during his conversation with Bristol24/7. “Who is the ultimate benefactor?
“One of the reasons that I do this is making things public so everyone can see what is going on. There are things that should be published.”
For Church, submitting FOI requests is a hobby that he does for hours after work, but not on weekends (“I do have a social life”).
“Some people like trainspotting, some people like darts, I like FOIs,” he says matter-of-factly. “I’ve always been a bit of a news junky…
“I love doing this. It has been damn good fun. I love finding out things.”
https://twitter.com/RealFrankChurch/status/1075839187163758594
Read more: My 2018: Kobi-Jean Cole
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