Agenda item

*O&S 44        

Consideration was given to a report that provided a detailed overview of the One Council Consultation process, including how the consultation was devised and the range of methods used to engage with the public.

In her introduction, the Committee Chairman emphasised that the purpose of this agenda item was not to focus on the merits of the proposal, but to ensure that the consultation process had been fair, reasonable and balanced.

In discussion, reference was made to:-

(a)    the recent press release.  The Leader was aware of a number of concerns that had been raised at the recent press release that had been issued.  The Leader stated that it was his personal view that a press release should have been held back until after the Overview and Scrutiny Committee had been given the opportunity to scrutinise the consultation process and check that the applied methodology had been deemed to be sound;

(b)    the ICT glitch.  The Leader reiterated that the glitch was outside of the control of the Council and had occurred on the last day of the consultation period.  Officers proceeded to advise that mitigating measures (including extending the consultation period by one day) were put into place to minimise the impact of this unfortunate disruption;

(c)    the telephone survey.  Members acknowledged that the telephone survey had been statistically representative of the Borough population in terms of age and gender and should be considered to be the most statistically valid and representative aspect of the consultation process;

(d)    Council Tax Equalisation.  In reply to a question, officers confirmed that the questions related to Council Tax Equalisation were only considered by respondents to the South Hams survey;

(e)    the restriction on IT equipment.  A Member expressed the view that the provision whereby a piece of IT equipment could only be used once to provide a survey response had been too restrictive.  In reply, the Leader advised that a risk analysis had been undertaken and it had been concluded that a greater risk would have arisen from multiple responses being generated from the same piece of IT equipment;

(f)      the ability to obtain a paper copy of the survey.  The Committee noted that the postcards that had been delivered to each household in the Borough had made it clear that residents could request a paper copy of the survey;

(g)    establishing a standalone Facebook consultation page.  The view was expressed that, instead of a signposting page approach being adopted, a greater number of responses would have been made during the consultation process if the survey had been directly available from a standalone Facebook consultation page;

(h)    the low response rates from the business sector.  When questioned, officers informed that they had engaged the Federation of Small Businesses for Devon; the Business Information Point in Okehampton; the local Chambers of Commerce and the Business Voice mailing list;

(i)      town and parish council responses.  Whilst some Members felt that a 52% response rate from town and parish councils was low, the point was made that, in light of the lack of alternative options, a number had not felt in a position to make an evidence based submission to the survey.  The Committee was also informed that, whilst aware that the consultation period had expired, Tavistock Town Council would be formally considering the proposal at its meeting later today;

(j)      the wording of the questions.  Based upon feedback he had received, a Member stated that there was a perception amongst some residents that the questions had been somewhat leading towards encouraging a positive response to the survey;

(k)    the timing of the Committee meeting.  A Member expressed his personal disappointment that the Committee meeting was not held at the exact same time as the equivalent Overview and Scrutiny Panel meeting at South Hams District Council.

In conclusion, a number of Members stated their belief that the consultation process had been robust and sound.  

It was then:

RESOLVED

That the Committee has considered the consultation process and response.