In the Yellow Pages of the survey 24 critical comments were made in all (out of a total of 516 comments). These have been arranged in three different categories, for the purpose of responding to them, as follows:
| Nature of Criticism | Number |
| 1. Respondent’s Agenda not covered | 12 |
| 2. Timing of survey | 2 |
| 3. Technical | 10 |
Criticism |
Response |
| "There appears to be a hidden agenda behind some questions" | Yes, there is; and, what’s more, it’s not hidden. This is because we contacted a large number of community organisations in the Isle of Wedmore, during our pre-questionnaire consultation process, and asked them to suggest questions that would fulfil their agenda.. You can read about who we consulted, and what they said, by clicking on Organisations and Individuals Consulted in Drafting the Adult Questionnaire. |
| "My personal agenda has not been included" | We did put out calls, over three months, in the IoW News and local papers, requesting that individuals wishing to have their concerns/questions included should contact any member of the Committee, and we should be happy to accommodate their points. Those who did so had their questions included. If you would still like the Appraisal to cover a point you feel has been omitted, you can contact the Chairman, Sue Rippon, on 713125, and your questions may be able to be included in the next phase of the Appraisal - the Focus Groups. |
| "Guess that you have already made up your mind about the priority – TRAFFIC! Why the first question?" | From the Open Meeting held in the Village Hall for the whole IoW community in October 2001, we knew that traffic was the single biggest issue for residents, by a very large margin. This has been borne out by the survey results, both in the findings of the quantified survey, and by the Extra Comments submitted by respondents via their Yellow Pages (the largest proportion of comments - 43% - are about traffic. The next biggest topic only accounts for 6% of comments). Why the first question? Because it is the most important for most people. |
| "Omissions – We badly need a new purpose-built medical centre" | We consulted the surgery Partners on whether they wished to have a question about this in the survey. They did not. In view of that, we asked them to release a formal statement on the issue, so that everyone in the parish could be updated on this. They have kindly agreed to do this, and you can read their statement by clicking on GPs’ position statement on surgery. |
| "It would perhaps have been instructive to know how many clubs and societies your respondents in the various age groups belong to…and the assessed sustainability of the volunteer structure of their organisation". | This is a good point, and we
did work quite hard to encourage voluntary groups who are
having trouble getting volunteers to come forward and
suggest questions! A review of essential services provided in the community by voluntary groups who are having trouble recruiting volunteers can be conducted as part of Phase 2 of this project - The Village Plan. An audit of paid-up membership of clubs and societies does not, of course, need a self-completion survey, since the clubs themselves will have lists of current active members, one hopes! |
| "I do think the timing of sending out this questionnaire was not thought out very well and I fear you will not have a very good response (just before Christmas)." | We do accept that the timing was less than ideal, and particularly for our poor posties who had hundreds of extra pieces to handle at their busiest time. However, we were only given twelve months by the funding body in which to complete this entire project, including several stages of consultation with the entire community, plus the most important part - Phase 2, the finished Village Plan. Having started last April, we could not afford to lose two whole months of our twelve, which is what would have happened if we had missed our November deadline for getting the questionnaire out. Fortunately, the timing seems not to have affected our response rate which, at 34.5%, exceeded our wildest expectations! |
| "The 5-point answer scale – people need to be made not to sit on the fence. I hazard a guess that the majority of responses are ‘in the middle’. Good practice for surveys is a 4- point scale." | We can understand that you
may take the view that the people ‘in the
middle’ should be deprived of a voice. However, our
mission was to give everyone in the community a
voice, even those who sit on fences! As to good practice,
we have abided, throughout, by the Best Practice
guidelines set out by the Market Research Society, the
UK’s professional research body, of which our
Chairman is a Full Member. Incidentally, where we did use a 4-pt scale, for specific reasons, people moaned that they wanted a ‘middle’ option! |
| "Comments box – good idea to leave a space for comments under each question." | Sorry, but you’re wrong on this. If we had allowed verbatim comments for each question, this would have entailed an estimated additional 180,000 coding entries for the data processing agency, at an estimated cost of £45,000+. Plus, it would have taken months - assuming we could have found anyone to do the work! As it is, the ‘Yellow Pages’ cost precisely nothing (the transcriptions were done by hard-working volunteers) and generated 516 interesting verbatim comments, including this one! |
| "Confusing – the ‘box titles’ vary a lot and will confuse some people. Not accessible for all (children to adults)." | Fortunately, there is no
evidence, from our 795 responses, that any respondents
found the questionnaire confusing. It was thoroughly
‘piloted’ before being printed and distributed
(see Best Practice note, above), and was very carefully
compiled by professional researchers. As to accessibility for children, the questionnaire was sent to adults only. Teenagers and children aged 4-9 have separate surveys. |
These responses cover the main identifiable criticisms of the survey. If you want to read the remainder of the ‘grumbles’ made, you can do so by clicking on Verbatim Comments Report; where, incidentally, you can also find the many appreciative and complimentary comments made about this survey, which modesty forbids us to report here, except to say a big ‘Thank You’ to all those who took the trouble to say something kind about our efforts!
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