Mid Devon Council survey responses plummet

Is it worth running again?

A community survey to which responses have dropped by nearly half has been defended by a Devon council after public criticism questioning its worth.

A total of 433 people responded to Mid Devon District Council’s residents’ survey last year, compared with 810 the year before.

According to the 2021 Census, 82,800 people lived in the district, leading a member of the public at the council’s cabinet meeting this week to ask  whether the findings are truly meaningful.

The cabinet defended the survey, with one councillor stating that 433 people is more than the minimum number needed to garner meaning from it.

As a rule of thumb, with children making up 18 per cent of the population, it means about 0.006 adults took part in the survey, or about one in every 167.

The results showed the proportion of respondents fairly or very dissatisfied with the way the council runs services fell from 31 per cent in 2023 to 27 per cent in the most recent 2024 survey.

And the percentage of people whower very or fairly satisfied rose from 34 per cent in 2023 to 42 per cent this time.

Resident Paul Elstone said if all 42 councillors had filled in the survey, that represented about a tenth of all responses.

“It is not a representative sample,” he claimed.

“Does the council have any intention to find out why the number of responses was so low? How can any credibility be given to the survey?”

Council leader Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat, Bradninch) said he “appreciates the comments” from the public, but that it is “difficult to get people to complete surveys in relation to Mid Devon.

“All parish council clerks, primary schools, the local press, social media, 6,500 people who subscribe to our e-bulletins, and posters were all used to raise awareness of the survey,” he said.

“A lot of work goes into the survey, and while it is disappointing to only have 433 respondents out of 80,000 or so electors, it is difficult to try and get more people to complete it while not wanting to put significant costs into it.”

Cllr Taylor added that he felt like surveys about councils were similar to online reviews, in that “if people are unhappy they are more likely to complete it than people who are happy”.

He also welcomed the improvements in the scores for the council.

Cllr Josh Wright (Liberal Democrat, Silverton), cabinet member for service delivery and continuous improvement, added that putting Mid Devon’s population figure into a sample size calculator suggested that just 383 respondents would be sufficient to glean meaning from the survey.

“This means we can have relative confidence in the accuracy and general feeling of people and the public in Mid Devon,” he added.