Your online report (February 22, borehamwoodtimes.co.uk) that Hertsmere Borough Council claims nine out of ten local residents are happy with their performance will ring hollow with most people in Borehamwood.
We have spent a great deal of time canvassing local opinion, door to door, around Borehamwood’s Brookmeadow ward over the past year.
It is clear to us that no amount of carefully timed pre-election surveys can mask the deep-rooted discontent at the raw deal this town gets from the Conservative administration at our council.
Concerns raised with us in recent months include anger at how Borehamwood is the location for most of the housing development, but appears to benefit from minimal investment in new infrastructure to cope with the expanding population.
People are angry about the failure of the council to speak out and act on their behalf about local transport issues, traffic congestion and the deterioration of Thameslink services. People feel vulnerable at night where street lights have been switched off by the borough Conservatives’ political allies at Hertfordshire County Council. We encourage Borehamwood Times readers to visit the council website and read the full report — not just the self-congratulatory headlines and hyperbole that have been released to the press. They will note stark differences between the data from Borehamwood and elsewhere in the borough.
It seems that £21,000 of local people’s hard-earned council tax has been spent on a piece of Conservative election propaganda that rides roughshod over the views of people in Borehamwood. Even the company that carried out the survey admits in its report that “the achieved sample was unbalanced...” and that it had to “improve” the data by weighting it.
We challenge the Conservative administration at Hertsmere to stop hiding behind telephone surveys, weighted data and statistical acrobatics. It should establish citizen’s panels with balanced representation from across the borough to solicit regular, meaningful ongoing feedback.
Minimally, it ought to invite Borehamwood folk to participate in a survey that is open to all, not just a selected few.
Sam Lishak, Jeremy Newmark and Rebecca Schapira
Borehamwood Brookmeadow ward Labour candidates for Hertsmere Borough Council
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