"Bogus" Consultation a Fiasco

(revised) 16th Feb 2004

Before it was even issued the leader of the ruling Labour group said he wouldn't be bound by its results, and the council's consultation exercise has continued its descent into the realms of farce ever since.

The questionnaire was distributed in the January issue "Harrow People", the council's costly and controversial residents' newsletter. Reports reaching HCTC allege that many households did not receive the issue in question, especially in areas with the highest proportion of council tax payers. Conversely, we have very few reports of missing deliveries in wards where many residents are exempt from the charges. If anyone can shed light on this situation, please contact us in confidence.

Whether by design or incompetence, this poor distribution may be the reason behind a very low return rate - just 552 forms have been posted back compared with 5,651 in 2003. A further 188 used the Internet to record their views. Or perhaps the poor response was because residents were sickened at council's representation of last year's results: "The majority of people responding to the council’s budget consultation have opted for a council tax increase of 17.1%"

Publicly the council has said that the sample was too small to be significant. The fact is that only 28% of respondents voted for schemes to spend more money and just 21% voted against any proposed savings.

Meanwhile, more than 22,000 Harrow residents have registered their support with this campaign, signing a petition stating any tax rise above inflation is totally unacceptable. Given the council's interest in statistics, it might like to compare this figure with the number of votes it received in the election - it is certainly large enough to be significant.

See the latest results published by the council  here. (Requires Acrobat).