In October 2014, Conservative controlled Kingston Council launched their all-in-one survey.  Advertising on buses (and still there despite the survey closing in November), in newspapers, through social media and sending a survey to every household in the borough, at an estimated cost of £95,000.

In December 2014, the initial results were announced – 9,746 survey responses. A cost of a little under £10 per response. On a population of 166,000 in Kingston, a little under 6% of residents responded or 15% of households.  The details of the responses are planned to be available via a series of community based events during January and February.

Whilst consulting residents for their views is always important, is spending nearly £10 per response reasonable? At a time when the Council needs to save over £10m, spending nearly £100,000?

says Councillor Yogan Yoganathan