Local government consultations are fascinating. This one included loaded questions, got 91% negative response - and yet still the officers are advising to go ahead. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... - ThreadSky

philipjcowley.bsky.social • 14 hours ago

Local government consultations are fascinating. This one included loaded questions, got 91% negative response - and yet still the officers are advising to go ahead.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj0q4093p10o.amp

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jrlclarke.bsky.social•13 hours ago

On the subject of surveys, I was doing research at a sure start centre a couple of years back, when ‘customers’ were asked to fill out a questionnaire on council services. One of the questions was whether they wanted the council to prioritise economic growth or tackling inequality. A binary choice.

philipjcowley.bsky.social•13 hours ago

I declare an interest -- in that this is the recycling centre I use - and almost never have to queue.

And yes, local government petitions over recycling centres may seem small fry given everything else going on in the world - but this is my coping mechanism.

syd-e13.bsky.social•13 hours ago

Assume that the *actual* reason for this is to discourage people from using the facility at all; but they can't say that out loud obviously.

jrlclarke.bsky.social•13 hours ago

Demand management.

Its really hard to find the phone number for my local authority on the website and you can no longer use direct dial, so you have to wait to get answered by the central switchboard, then answer questions about which ‘service’ you require and are then put onto the person you need

franciselliott.bsky.social•13 hours ago

There really ought to be consequences for this sort of fake consultation- I have a hunch it does much more to damage trust than the likes of Mike amesbury

philipjcowley.bsky.social•12 hours ago

Agree. Difficult to see how this doesn't damage any sense of political efficacy.

They really are not listening to you...

Someone should write an article about it, in a magazine dealing with politics.

philipjcowley.bsky.social•12 hours ago

"If you think that's bad... let me tell you about this consultation in Sussex..."

dtrmcr.bsky.social•10 hours ago

It's not necessarily a fake consultation even if the findings don't seem to have influenced the outcome. Sometimes a council will choose to go ahead with something unpopular because they think it's the right thing to do, and the consultation helps them understand more about why it's unpopular.

dtrmcr.bsky.social•10 hours ago

Unfortunately some people think a consultation is a mini-referendum with an extra opportunity to add an explanation of their "vote" - understandably they're disappointed when they find out it isn't.

philipjcowley.bsky.social•9 hours ago

Respectfully, I think that is an optimistic take on what is going on here.

franciselliott.bsky.social•12 hours ago

What do the bats think though?

guspaul.bsky.social•13 hours ago

It also shows how people are sometimes just wrong. Our local tip introduced this around COVID time and it's 100% better experience than the free for all long queue it used to be.

philipjcowley.bsky.social•13 hours ago

But I use it all the time and there are almost never any queues. So they are not wrong.

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