Feared by the bad – loved by the good

Robin Hood may have been the champion of the people in medieval Sherwood Forest, but a few miles down the M1 in Derby it’s journalist Robin Johnson who has taken up the sword of truth to right wrongs on behalf of the city’s folk.

Born and bred in the city, Robin, 25, was appointed as the Derby Evening Telegraph’s first consumer affairs reporter less than three weeks ago.

Already he has notched up his first successes.

“An elderly disabled couple, who both have to use wheelchairs, contacted me to say they’d been virtually trapped in their own homes since November,” said Robin.

Powergen was working on the pavement outside the couple’s front gate and had left a large hole which the couple could not get across. Instead they had to struggle out of another entrance, which was too narrow for their wheelchairs.

Robin said: “They had called Powergen about a dozen times and got nowhere. I called them in the morning, and the same afternoon someone was round at the house putting a temporary cover over the hole so that the couple could get in and out.”

As well as acting on telephone calls and e-mail messages which he receives from readers, Robin also scours the Internet, national newspapers and magazines for consumer issues which he can localise and develop.

He is currently working on a plan to put a weekly shopping basket price comparison on the newspaper’s Internet site This is Derbyshire.

You can e-mail Robin at [email protected].

Don’t let Robin have all the glory. Let us know how you take up the cudgles on behalf of your readers.
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