Dear Mr Singh,

I am a Southall resident and in all fairness a survey conducted by the Ealing Southall Conservative Association in the light of your campaign seems to be a bid biased for my taste. Only an external audit, undertaken by an unbiased and a publically recognized organization, is credible enough to make such claims. I am sure that a labour party lead survey, or any other party lead survey for that matter, would yield results in their favour. Further, you mentioned voting intentions. I am a LSE postgraduate politics student and I must say as an academic that, considering the scale of the survey's actual responses, this research is weak in its capacity due to the constituency ratio of response (Responses/Total number of Constituents). Also further you mentioned that you have made comments on your supposed achievements within the constituency. Correct me when I am wrong but when I last checked I am certain that our constituency is lead and represented by a Labour MP. I believe Mr Sharma is his name. So how is it that you as opposition can claim improvements in the areas you mentioned? Second, how would the average voter in the constituency know who exactly is responsible for any improvements? Fact is that the average voter does not know and as such gathering their perception has no substance. I am sure that cleaner streets and recycling facility improvements have been driven by a joined effort of all council members. To sum it up, the survey has no credibility and so the claims it suggests. Concentrate on substance Cllr Singh and foremost please stop wasting tax payers money, then I am sure that this survey was not paid by you personally.

Kind regards your constituent,

Ron

Dear Ron,

Thank you for your comment. I have attempted to address the points you raised below:

"a survey conducted by the Ealing Southall Conservative Association in the light of your campaign seems to be a bid biased"
Each party carries out their own polling/surveys on a regular basis. The objectives vary but are usually to do with gauging the degree of policy acceptance and/or the extent to which their campaign has been successful. This particular survey has been carried out as a "self assessment" of sorts and enables us to:
i, give our constituents an opportunity to provide some feedback on the 3 main areas highlighted in the table; and
ii, give my campaign an opportunity to be more aligned to the needs of the constituents and shape strategy.
As an academic in the field, I'm sure you can appreciate the intent here.
To be clear however, I'm certainly not trying to pass this off as an independent audit in any which way, shape or form. Also, in the absence of an independent audit this, to my mind, is the next best thing. I have to say, I haven't seen any effort on behalf of Mr Sharma to gauge the community in the same way at all - have you?

"please stop wasting tax payers money, then I am sure that this survey was not paid by you personally"
This survey was funded through campaign donations and was delivered and processed with assistance from volunteers. In general, surveys as well as any other campaign material (e.g. leaflets, posters, websites, etc.) are funded by the party or by voluntary contribution from active party members. The matter of costs falling on tax payers does not even arise.

"considering the scale of the survey's actual responses, this research is weak in its capacity due to the constituency ratio of response (Responses/Total number of Constituents)"
In all 1300 electors chose to reply and this accounted as 3.7% of the total of those to whom the questionnaire was delivered. This may appear marginal to you however, we consider every single one of the 1300 response to be equally valid and important.

"gathering their perception has no substance"
I wholeheartedly disagree with your point of view here. We consider our constituents to be well informed and at the very least concerned with how they are being represented by their local politicians. We certainly do not consider their perception as having "no substance" as you put it.

"how would the average voter in the constituency know who exactly is responsible for any improvements?"
Again, we like to give our constituents a little more credit than that. We do not make any assumptions that discredit them by considering them to be an "average voter".
Regardless and for your benefit alone, here are is some explanation to help clear things up: At the Westminster, Ealing Southall is represented by the Labour party and locally by The Conservatives. Issues like council tax, cleaning, recycling, resurfacing of roads and footpath renewals are the responsibility of the local council which is currently being run by The Conservatives. Given your keen interest in figures, I will provide you with some examples of the difference in delivery between Labour and Conservative at the local government level:
When Labour were in control, the council tax in their last four years increased by 48% whereas, under The Conservatives the increase has always been kept to below inflation and in fact, this year, we froze council tax and are refunding £50 to each eligible council tax payer. On cleaning, under Labour, only 47% of streets were regarded as clean whereas, under The Conservatives, consistently 90% of the streets have been cleaned to a "grade A" standard.

To conclude, I would like to commend you for taking the time to provide feedback. It shows a level of concern that I think all constituents should have. With that in mind, I would like to wholeheartedly invite you, to work with us and either continue providing constructive criticism or perhaps even use your know-how to help develop our current strategy. You can call me to discuss this at your convenience.

Warm regards,

Gurcharan

Dear Councillor Singh

Why was your poll for just four wards? If you do this too often I would advise you that you will be falling into the same trap as Mr Sharma.

Answers please.

Dear George,

The survey in Norwood Green ward is about to commence and in Northfields and Elthorne it is already progressing. On the odd Saturday, I join our local team for canvassing in Northfields and Elthorne and as soon as results are available; these will be posted on my website.

I am fully aware that my constituency consists of seven wards and each ward is equally important. I have always been an Ealing-Southall-centric politician and will always take up issues which are relevant to all.

I hope above answers your query and if you have any issue, please do not hesitate to raise with me.

Best,
Gurcharan

Nice one Gurcharan!

Liking the coverage of this in the local newspaper:

http://gurcharansingh.co.uk/blog/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=206