Readers may remember that earlier in the year the Isle of Wight council launched a public consultation asking members of the public to help shape next year’s council budget.
At last week’s full council meeting, the public response to the consultation was branded by Cllr Geoff Lumley as ‘pitiful’.
Members of the public were asked to use an online budget simulator to vote on how funding priorities by the council.
A paper submitted to full council last week (embedded below for your convenience) revealed that the online simulator (provided free of charge by the Government) was accessed just 75 times. Not only that, but 25% of those taking part were council staff.
Very low response to online survey
In addition to the budget simulator, the council also ran an online survey.
Again, this had a very low response rate. 57 people repsonding is 0.0004% of the Island’s 140,000 population.
Not too late to have your say
The council concluded their paper by saying that they were disappointed with the level of responses to the consultation, but it’s okay because apparently, “there are opportunities for members of the public to share their views in relation to specific consultations linked to proposed plans all year round as well as through the democratic processes of the Council; including Full Council, Cabinet and the various scrutiny panels and committees; and of course ultimately through participation in elections.”
