Peckham Rye Online Residents' Survey

[paulino]

OK, I dont know why I am bothering (must be a slow day) but here goes as to why the survey is useless. I am sure others have said words to this effect earlier on, but seeing as you keep insisting that the survey is not flawed, then here goes:

In the first section, there are four named options for things people think the council should improve. Surely when designing this questionnaire you could've come up with a few more options? If you are going to provide multiple choices then you MUST provide, ok maybe not a totally exhaustive list, but then at least something that is a little more comprehensive. Street lighting, state of road and pavement, dog poo collection, library provision, how about things for ADULTS to do.... some of these things could've gone in? Human nature being as it is, respondents will invariably simply click on one of the things that you have listed (and more than likely those that appear near the top of the list), which will seriously skew the results.

You mentioned Tetra Pak recycling in one of your later posts...and whaddayouknow...tetra pak recycling appears is one of the [three!] options in your other multiple choice question. It is CLEAR that a definite bias has informed the writing of this survey.

In other places, your questions are not exactly neutral. [e.g. Do you think the Council makes the most of every single penny etc.]. It is a LOADED statement and it is going to give you probably very different results than if you had asked a question worded it differently.

I am not in the slightest worried about primary school places. What happens if 100s of others like me answer the same? Does it mean that primary school provision is excellent? Or does it mean that a load of single, childless people have answered the survey? How can you tell?

I personally think 1 mile is walking distance - so how do I answer the survey?

I could go on and on but I dont have the strength. I dont mean to nitpick, but an awful lot more thought needs to go into the design of the survey if you want to be able to say with any credibility that the answers will not be severly biased in some way, otherwise you might as well just make up the results.

[VikkiM]

It's important to bother - so thank you paulino.

I've probably insisted that the survey has a role to play but I haven't insisted that the survey isn't flawed. What you can fit on one side of A4 and on 10 questions on surveymonkey is limited. How much time people are willing to give to these things is often limited too.

So that makes additional feedback like you've given really helpful. As I've said several times, posting here or PM'ing me or emailing us on [email protected], talking to us on the doorstep or at community meetings or at councillors' surgeries is very, very helpful. You clearly don't need to fill in the survey - we've got a good idea of some of your local priorities from the post above. And if you want to give fuller answers then please do send it through to us (PM, email or via the blog or on here).

[paddyotoole]

first mate you've been brainwashed nicely by the policial elite it seems. another drone doing the bidding.

people wake up, start thinking for yourself and stop wasting your time and lives thinking that any of this drivel spouted out by politicians, whether lab, con, lib whatever actually matters. they all just liars who will say and do anything to get your vote and get into power, and when the sh*t hits the fan they pass the buck, will not take any responsibility and say and do anything to save their own skin.

totally agree that this forum should either have a separate politics section, or alternatively and preferably a rule that on the EDF no political party should be alllowed to post or disseminate information / canvas for votes.

[first mate]

POT,

Eh, how do figure that? Have you read my posts?

[paddyotoole]

disagree: "we must all talk politics" on the forum

agree re: separate section though

[willow]

Sorry Gavin - I completely disagree with you. I work in the recycling sector and believe that this obsession with tetra pack recycling is misguided. I mentioned that less than 3% of waste is made up of tetra packs. I would argue that this is a fairly insignificant proportion of the waste stream and the council's focus should be increasing the number of people using the existing facilities available as it's here that will make the most difference. Whether or not the council collects tetra packs from the kerbside is merely a distraction. I imagine the cost of adding tetra pack recycling to the existing kerbside collection would be way out of proportion compared to the impact on the waste stream.

"Almost everyone else in England is able to do better, and if we really care about this issue we have to ask why Southwark is being left behind." If you look at the councils that do best at recycling they tend to be affluent rural boroughs that have a large proportion of single dwellings in their housing stock. More than 60% of Southwark residents live in flats, one of the highest percentages in the country. Collecting recycling from flats presents a much greater challenge as I'm sure you'll agree. If you look at the breakdown of recycling and composting councils with the highest recycling are those that are able to collect a large amount of green waste i.e. those boroughs where there are more green spaces and most households have gardens (For 8 out of the top 10 recycling boroughs in the country more than half is made up of green waste). The leafy suburbs these aint. Combine this with the fact that Southwark has a highly transient population where for many people English isn't their first language (which makes it harder to communicate with people about the service) and the fact that it's one of the most deprived boroughs in the country (proven link between socio-economic group and recycling behaviour) it's obvious that Southwark was always going to have one of the lowest recycling rates in the country.

"It's an issue of political priorities - and for the Lib Dems this clearly hasn't been put far enough up the list"

Bit rich considering when the lib dems came to power in 2000 the recycling rate was less than 3% due to woeful neglect of this area by the previous labour administration.

I think you need to do more research in this area

[????]

The issue I have is not with politics on the Forum, we have plenty of that and there are a number of excellent posters who are entirely open about their membership of various political parties but contribute intelligently and with thought on various issues as individuals rather than as spokespeople for their parties, the issue I have is political parties of any sort just coming on this forum for their own ends and doing their

A) Poor surveys

b) Point scoring

c) Propoganda/electioneering.

d) etc

I like the independence of this site and don't want it full of any of the above. I'd have links to party sites where you lot can say how wonderful you are and how crap the other lot are but just leave us alone or expect more of the same rather than a warm welcome from me.

As far as I'm concerned if you want to post as individuals on political threads NOT started by a political party then welcome aboard but poorly designed surveys with leading questions not really contexualised, containing 'knocking copy' that leave me suspicious of just how they are going to be used will be met with the sort of response you have got on here from me and others I'm sure. It's up to admin wether to allow this sort of thing and I'm not that worried if he does but I will be critical and not that welcoming to any party doing this.

Anyway we won't be arguing about how we pack away our glass and cans when the chaos of the public finances your boss has left us with comes home to roost over the next few years, we'll be lucky to get a collection once a month then.

Anarchy man.

[first mate]

????,

Well said. Let them take the spin elsewhere 'cos it no longer washes with this forum.