Councillor Paul Eagle was on Radio New Zealand's The Panel at 4:30 this afternoon to announce the results of the survey run by the Island Bay Residents Association.
A total of 1,792 valid responses were received, which represents 35% of the population of Island Bay eligible to take part in the survey. According to Councillor Eagle 87% of responses "want the cycleway switched back". That is a total of 1,559 people, or 31% of the population of Island Bay eligible to take part in the survey. According to the member of the Residents Association committee I just spoke to the results were meant to be embargoed until 7pm tonight but Councillor Eagle obviously felt it appropriate to break the embargo. Perhaps he felt the need to control the narrative after we posted last week about a range of problems with the survey, including the fact that as a non-probability survey it is not statistically valid to infer the result to the entire population. When Councillor Eagle was asked about this on The Panel he simply side-stepped the question and then inferred the 87% result to the entire population. The only factually correct statement that can be made about these survey results is that 65% of the population of Island Bay eligible to take part in the survey chose not to. It is time for the Residents Association to do what they promised and listen to the majority of people in Island Bay. A clear majority are saying "we do not care enough about this issue to participate in a survey that was widely advertised and distributed to every single letterbox in the suburb". The Residents Association should accept this result and drop any further opposition to the cycleway. They do not have a mandate from the community to take any other course of action. Update (9/4/16): Both Councillor Eagle and the Residents Association continue to mis-represent the results of the survey by regularly claiming that "87% of Island Bay residents want the cycleway put back the way it was". The Residents Association has responded to criticism of the survey and their interpretation of the results in this Facebook post. Regan.
3 Comments
frances kinraid
9/3/2016 08:47:03 pm
What a strange way to judge a matter..no way was that survey even going to reach people.. surely apoll might yield a fairer ifnding. This who didnt vote doesnt mean they dont want any action...personally i found th equestions the aurvey was posing were ambiguous..I wonder how manyothers felt the questions needed work!!
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S Coppard
9/3/2016 09:45:15 pm
It was a pity that there were not more supporters at the meeting. Everyone had a chance to speak but it was obvious to all (including Councillors) that nearly all were against the cycleway. The most amusing quote from the evening: 'It's a cycleway to hell. It goes nowhere'.
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Rachel Kerr
11/3/2016 01:33:27 pm
I never received the survey in my letterbox despite living in Island Bay. I wonder how many other people didn't get one?
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