Spalding Civic Society has said the recent Town Board survey on where £2m a year ‘Levelling Up’ money should be spent had not gone to every home in town as promised.
The surveys were produced for the Spalding Town Board to ask residents what the £20m over ten years should go on.
The Spalding Civic Society has revealed a company commissioned to hand-deliver paper surveys to every Spalding property did not complete the task.
That was the reason the deadline for people to submit survey entries both on paper and online was extended to June 21, the board says.
In the society’s latest newsletter chair John Bland said: “It is just a pity that the survey that was supposed to have been delivered to every home in the town wasn’t.
“The surveys that were completed represent a very low proportion of the 500 surveys returned,” it added.
Spalding Town Board chairman Robin Hancox previously said the response ranks ‘pretty highly’ compared to ‘similar consultations’ carried out in other towns’.
On the company failing to deliver to every Spalding property, he said: “The board was committed to ensuring as many people as possible had the opportunity to have their say in the consultation on how £20m could be invested in the town. This included an online survey and a paper copy survey. We commissioned a company to manage the mailing by hand to homes in the town.
“During the consultation process, we received feedback that a number of people hadn’t received the mailing. So we extended the deadline for responses to enable people who received the additional paper copies we made available to complete and return.
“In addition to the online and offline survey, through which we heard from 507 people, we also captured feedback online through social media and we have gathered feedback at evens too. The consultation is just the start of our engagement with local people and we look forward to involving residents in the months to come.”
The board was formed after the previous government’s pledge to spend £20m over ten years on towns it deemed had been ‘left behind’, including Spalding.
Before the General Election, town boards across the country were given a deadline of August 1 to submit how it would spend the £20m, but that deadline has now been delayed.
The new Labour Government has yet to confirm that the funding will remain in place after the Autumn Statement and a department spokesman said it wouldn’t be clear until the statement was made.
It deleted the words ‘Levelling Up’ from the department name and reverted to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
