We wonder how many times the people who carry out surveys reissue them until the answers begin to conform to what they wanted them to be in the first place?
Yet another “Have Your Say” survey is launched by Boston Borough Council today and riding in tandem with it is yet another questionnaire from Lincolnshire County Council about – yes, you’ve guessed it …the Market Place refurbishment.
It’s only about six months since the last such survey was dumped in our laps – burying us beneath an avalanche of twenty questions ranging from how often we visited, how much we spent, what attractions we enjoyed (a tough one this, as so far there have been very few) and how we rated the range of shops and services – which was ironic given the number of business that have closed down since the Market Place work began and stallholders who have decided to call it a day..
The latest survey is a slimmed-down version – with some of the same questions included but many falling by the wayside.
It does, however, sing the same old song with its opening statement: “Lincolnshire County Council is undertaking an evaluation of the recent refurbishments undertaken in Boston Market Place.
“The objective of the project is to deliver a high quality public realm scheme in the market place, returning it to its rightful position as the centre piece of the town.
“Detailed evaluation work is required to confirm that the money invested in this project has been well spent and delivers significant benefit to the local area.”
This immediately leads to a question of its own – what happened to the answers to last year’s questionnaire, and what was done about them?
Presumably, they weren’t what was expected, and the hope is that asking them again will produce a response more to Lincolnshire County Council’s liking.
The Market Place project was one with several partners – including Boston Borough Council – which seems little interested in itself seeking opinions from the voters or pushing for improvements.
Broadly, the only message that we have heard from the public is that the job has not been a success.
We hear constant complaints of problems for pedestrians and motorists alike, and yet despite the time that has elapsed, no one seems to have even started to address matters.
Meanwhile, the borough council’s own survey asked for feelings about our “local area”   defined as “the area within 15-20 minutes walking distance from your home.”
This is a problem in itself, as we doubt that many people walk as far as 20 minutes from home these days unless they live fairly close to the town centre.
Most of us jump into our cars and drive for that length of time to get to our nearest supermarket which diminishes the weight of any answers from the outset.
The council says: “We are particularly interested in your comments about what could be done differently to improve your experience.
“We will look at the results and let you know what we intend to do in response.  We will then repeat this survey next year to see if things have improved
“Please tell us how you feel about the area, about council services, and about being a customer of Boston Borough Council.  We are particularly interested in your comments about what could be done differently to improve your experience.
“We will look at the results and let you know what we intend to do in response.  We will then repeat this survey next year to see if things have improved.”
We are asked declare our satisfaction levels (very satisfied to very dissatisfied, but with no retailed input) on no fewer than 15 “aspects” of our local area – ranging from allotments to the May Fair, travelling via  cultural facilities and public toilets.
And as far as council services are concerned, there are 18 areas requiring our opinions – from anti-social behaviour to tree advice.
The trouble with all of this is that way too many questions beg the answer “don’t know” – whilst many others will produce such a small response for the answers to be barely worthwhile.
For surveys like these to carry some merit, they need to be simpler and more specific – remember the classic case of £600,000 replacement for St Botolph’s footbridge where a “consultation” on the best design generated was chosen from the most favoured among  just 137 questionnaire replies.
And the most important result from any survey asking about improving public services should be action.
Still, if pointless surveys are your preferred cup of tea/coffee/mineral water/fruit juice/smoothie/another, then the survey, which has to be completed by Friday, March 15, and can be found at  http://bit.ly/14t0tvP

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