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Local Independent Poll on June Cycle Event
Closed Road Cycle Event
Readers’ Evaluation Poll Analysis
240 responses - Respondent profile: Local resident – 139 (57.9%); Local Business – 11 (4.6%); Both – 83 (34.6%); No answer/other – 7 (2.9%)
237 responses - P&K Council pre-event consultation - Very Satisfied – 4 (1.7%); Satisfied – 13 (5.5%); Neither satisfied nor dis-satisfied – 28 (11.8%); Dis-satisfied – 36 (15.2%);Very dis-satisfied – 156 (65.8%)
236 responses - Etape Caledonia pre-event consultation - Very Satisfied – 6 (2.5%); Satisfied – 19 (8.0%); Neither satisfied nor dis-satisfied – 25 (10.6%); Dis-satisfied – 33 (14.0%); Very dis-satisfied – 153 (64.8%)
239 responses - Perth & Kinross Council pre-event communication - Very Satisfied – 6 (2.5%); Satisfied – 20 (8.4%); Neither satisfied nor dis-satisfied – 17 (7.1%); Dis-satisfied – 41 (17.1%); Very dis-satisfied – 155 (64.8%)
237 responses - Etape Caledonia pre-event communication - Very Satisfied – 6 (2.5%); Satisfied – 23 (9.7%); Neither satisfied nor dis-satisfied – 26 (11.0%); Dis-satisfied – 38 (16.0%); Very dis-satisfied – 144 (60.7%)
194 responses - Economic Impact on you/your business - Significantly positive – 12 (6.2%); Positive – 12 (6.2%); Neither positive nor negative – 73 (37.6%); Negative – 49 (25.2%); Significantly negative – 48 (24.7%)
206 responses - Social Impact on you/your family - Significantly positive – 18 (8.7%); Positive – 23 (11.1%); Neither positive nor negative – 53 (25.7%); Negative – 66 (32.0%); Significantly negative – 46 (22.3%)
231 responses - Overall Impact on Highland Perthshire - Significantly positive – 23 (10.0%); Positive – 22 (9.5%); Neither positive nor negative – 24 (10.4%); Negative – 90 (39.0%); Significantly negative – 72 (31.1%)
237 responses - Should the event be run again in 2008? - Definitely yes – 37 (15.6%); Probably yes – 20 (8.4%); Don’t Know – 20 (8.4%); Probably not – 42 (17.7%); Definitely not – 118 (49.8%)
Summary
v Perth & Kinross and Etape Caledonia consultation process roundly condemned, with around 80% of respondents dis-satisfied or very dis-satisfied with the process (65% were very dis-satisfied, so the result is extremely polarised);
v Perth & Kinross and Etape Caledonia communication process also failed, with 82% criticising the Council (nearly 65% very dis-satisfied) and 77% Etape Caledonia (nearly 61% very dis-satisfied);
v 81% of respondents (194) expressed a view on economic impact, with nearly half (49.9%) finding it either significantly negative (24.7%) or negative (25.2%). 37.6% thought it was neither positive nor negative, whilst only 12.4% thought the economic impact was positive;
v The event appears to have had a largely negative social impact, with 54.3% scoring it negative or significantly negative. Less than 20% (19.8%) recorded a positive score, whilst 25.7% were neither positive nor negative;
v The overall impact on Highland Perthshire was judged to be negative by more than 70% of respondents. Again, less than 20% (19.5%) recorded a positive score;
v Less than a quarter of respondents feel the event should happen again. 67.5% respondents are opposed to a repeat in 2008, with virtually half of the respondents (49.8%) saying ‘definitely not’.
A curious phenomenon was observed by the analysers. For the first 100 responses, there was a 70% vote in favour of not repeating the event. This was repeated exactly over the second 100 responses. The final 40 responses, a number of which were received up to four days after poll closure deadline but counted anyway, then showed a sudden surge in support for the event, reducing the overall ‘No Repeat’ vote to 67.5%.
This may have been a co-incidence, or possibly a co-ordinated (if belated) campaign by the event’s supporters to influence the vote. Certainly, it was noticeable, as also was the fact that these final ‘positive’ forms largely contained no comments at all – being simply a row of straightforwardly positive ticks.
Despite some suspicion of these responses, and their belated submission, they have, however, been included in the analysis. Without them, the ‘no repeat event’ vote would have run at around 70%.
The following points are made to put this self-select poll conducted by Comment into context and into proportion:
Its distribution was by free-choice take-up without reward incentive. Indeed, to take part, respondents had to incur a cost or hassle element in lodging their completed form.
The questionnaire was only available to the public in the following manner:
• through uplift from the counters at the 26 sales outlets of the publication (colour coded paper - 57 forms returned - 24%)
• through the inclusion of one poll form only with each of 1,500 copies of Comment published on 11 July (colour coded paper - 150 forms returned - 63%);
• through downloading from www.commentonline (11 forms returned - 14%).
Participants were invited to return their completed poll sheet to any of Comment’s sales outlets, to fax them to Comment’s office, or to fold them to expose the return mail address and to fix stamps before posting (the bulk of the respondents used this method).
For these reasons the potential reach into the community was only partial. It was bounded even further by the poll closing date (31 July) set half way through the one month ‘currency’ of the edition in which the poll form appeared, thus restricting options for readers’ take-up to those who purchased during that period.
It is also worth noting that the edition appeared 17 days after the event took place, when it might be expected that some of the ‘dust had settled’ surrounding the issues in question.
Statistics
The total population of the circulation ‘footprint’ of Comment is some 12,500. That is the 1,000 square miles of Highland Perthshire embracing the population centres of Aberfeldy, Birnam/Dunkeld, Killin and Pitlochry.
Comment’s readership is reliably calculated to match the accepted industry standard of 3 times the sales figure (yielding approx 4,400 readers), but the inclusion of just one poll form per magazine copy thus indicates returns from 240 households. Even so, nearly one in 50 of the population took part in the poll.
137 respondents elected to make use of the ‘added comments’ section on the forms and these have all been transcribed and are available to view at: http://www.commentonline.co.uk/voxpop/viewtopic.php?t=2969. It should be noted that this figure represents an unusual and strikingly high percentage (57%) for questionnaire returns of this type with such a ‘comment’ facility. It was apparent from studying the returns that, even weeks after the event, feelings were still running high.
It should also be noted that, in the light of the above figures, the poll can be considered as statistically significant. As such, it is an important additional element to be taken into account in eventual evaluation of impact and cost/benefit and the subsequent decision-making regarding future mass events of this nature - or any other - in the Highland Perthshire locality.
The analysis of the poll forms’ content was conducted objectively and independently of the Comment office by The Edinburgh Consultancy, based in the capital, and all the returned forms are freely available for verification inspection at the Comment office in Kenmore Street, Aberfeldy.
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