The Council has released details of its, preposterously, labelled “BIG” York Survey http://tinyurl.com/York-Council-big-survey. The survey, undertaken with a small sample of residents in the spring, replaced the 6 monthly “Talkabout” panel.

The Council received only 1117 replies. This contrasts with over 30,000 responses which were received following a door to door survey undertaken by the Liberal Democrats in 2009.

The biggest flaw in the Council’s survey of resident’s views was the absence of any attempt to test public opinion on controversial areas of policy.

So there were no questions about Council Tax levels and the amount of borrowing that residents felt it might be prudent for the Council to take on.

Also missing was any attempt to find out how much residents value the existing Green Belt boundaries (the top issue revealed by many surveys in the past) while another area of concern – facilities for teenagers – was also neglected.

Residents did, however, get the chance to give a verdict on the 60% cut in highways maintenance introduced by the Labour controlled Council earlier this year.

Repair of roads and footpaths was the second highest priority of the services listed coming narrowly behind dealing with traffic congestion.

One of the most important items, for making York a nice place to live, were clean streets while litter and dumping were the most mentioned issue in the crime section of the survey.

The survey was undertaken only days before York abandoned many of its street litter bins.