Dear Sirs

I am writing to you concerning the questionnaires completed at the time of your Sail project exhibition of June 2008. I have seen copies of the questionnaires (currently in the West Kirby Concourse), and my initial analysis concerning the proposed hotel development is as follows.

Of the 583 questionnaires
  • 259 (44%) were against the proposals,
  • 238 (41%) indicated "yes", but it was often not clear whether they were approving the proposed plans for a 4-storey hotel on the Dee Lane car park site, or were just in principle in favour of a hotel somewhere in West Kirby, or even were just approving the sailing school without having seen the hotel plans
  • 16 (3%) indicated "yes" in principle, but "no" to the proposed design.
  • 69 (12%) were undecided, often indicating that they would like further information.
There was one illegible form.

So overall, there were 41% in favour of the proposed scheme, 12% undecided and 47% against.

These results are considerably different from the ones reported by the Wirral News of 9th July: "The results revealed by Carpenter Investments show 46pc in favour of the scheme, 18pc don't know and 36pc negative".

I would be grateful if you could tell me how your figures relate to the copies of the 583 questionnaires released. Furthermore, I have published my analysis at http://www.westkirbyrenewal.org.uk/sail_q.htm. I woud be grateful if you could let me know if you disagree with it in any way. Of course, if you find any errors I will rectify them.

Your faithfully,

Ian Campbell

West Kirby Working Group (Elizabeth Davey, Hugh Daglish, Peter Owen and myself)

Carpenter Investments


Dear Mr Campbell,

Thank you for your email, which I have received this evening. My apologies if you have failed to reach me on the info@carpenterinvestments.co.uk. account; I will speak to my IT company and see what is wrong here.

Suffice it to say that I do not agree with your interpretation of the data and am confused by your decision to suggest that your analysis is somehow independent, when you are clearly anything but.

I am confident that, when people tick a box to say yes, they broadly agree with the proposal for a new sailing school and hotel, then they mean just that. I do not believe that the people of West Kirby require you to re-interpret their yes as a no, but maybe you feel they do. That is the normal response of those who do not find that the rest of the world thinks as they do.

Nor, as a matter of interest, do I believe that when we solicited peoples opinions, as a private company acting in good faith, were they expecting you, as an independent statistical analyst, to photograph their responses and post them on the internet. I hope you will be happy answering personally any of those people who feel that their confidence has been breached by your action.

The Sail is an extremely important development for West Kirby. As you know, I live here, too and hold the town, its setting and its people in the deepest affection. I take an extremely dim view of the implicit suggestion by you and your colleagues that we are involved in any manipulation of data and I will take further action on this, if I feel it is warranted. The cynicism in this exercise Mr Campbell, is entirely yours.

The questionnaire was carefully devised to allow respondents to give a clear account of their feelings and you can be assured that we are fully aware of the whole range of opinion expressed in it. It will be faithfully reflected as we continue to develop our proposals and report upon our consultation.

Yours sincerely



Alan Beer
Joint Managing Director
M: 079770 45086
P: 0151 705 2272
F: 0151 707 9292
E: alan@carpenterinvestments.co.uk
The Old Police Station,
38a Hope Street,
Liverpool
L1 9BX

Carpenter Investments

Dear Sirs,

Thank you for your email of 5th November 2008 concerning the Sail exhibition questionnaires.

In this email you confirm that you obtained the figures quoted by the Wirral News of 9th July by analyzing the tick boxes of the first question. The Wirral News reported: "The results revealed by Carpenter Investments show 46pc in favour of the scheme, 18pc don't know and 36pc negative".

I have analyzed the tick boxes of the first question of the 583 questionnaires in the West Kirby Concourse and have obtained the totals as follows:
yes: 254 (44%)
no: 235 (40%)
undecided: 71 (12%)
no box ticked: 11 (2%)
more than one box ticked: 11 (2%)
(one form illegible)

I would be grateful if you could you say whether the figures quoted in the 9th July press reports represent your analysis of the questionnaires, and what your totals were in the various categories. I have published my analysis at http://www.westkirbyrenewal.org.uk/sail_q.htm, and I woud be grateful if you could let me know if you disagree with it in any way. If you find any errors I will of course rectify them.

With regard to the third question on the questionnaire, the Wirral Globe (5th November) quoted you as saying that 59.3% said it was a good opportunity to comment, and describing this as a "huge vote of confidence". Could you please say whether you included in this 59.3% all those who ticked the "yes" box to question 3, regardless of their text response - did you for example include in the 59.3% the people who wrote "the way it was organised was diabolical" and "very congested and plans very confusing and contradictory"?

Also, at the start of the exhibition on 26th June, no questionnaires were available for visitors to complete. Enquirers were told that the questionnaires had not arrived from the printers, and were offered an alternative of writing free text comments in a notebook carried by one of your team. Could you please say what has happened to these comments - were they transcribed onto questionnaire forms when the forms were delivered or were they just omitted from the analysis?

Finally, in view of the doubts that are being raised over the design, analysis and interpretation of the survey forms, would you be willing to submit them for scrutiny and analysis by an impartial major market research organisation such as the Electoral Reform Society?

Your faithfully,

Ian Campbell
West Kirby Working Group (Elizabeth Davey, Hugh Daglish, Peter Owen and myself)