Councillor defends survey spending

The survey, which quizzed people on their views about how Sheffield Council should make spending cuts of £57m in the coming financial year, was sent to about 230,000 homes.

Only 2,084 people bothered to respond to the letters, which cost 9p each to produce.

Council leader Julie Dore said yesterday: “I want to personally thank everyone who took the time to respond to my letter.

“This letter was never about a PR exercise, it’s about getting the views of our residents at a time of unprecedented government cuts, and it would be irresponsible of us to make these decisions without that.

“Sheffield people deserve to be told about the massive savings we have to make, and why we have to make them.

“I think that the letter and the publicity it has generated has helped to achieve this.

“We are genuinely interested to know what people’s views are – and the public responses have given us greater confidence that we have set the right budget priorities for Sheffield.”

According to Sheffield Council, the feedback from the letter indicated “overwhelming” support for protecting social services, education, libraries, parks and roads from the cuts.

The authority also claims residents agree savings should be made in areas such as council staff, managers, councillors, fortnightly bin collections and street lighting.

However, some other responses to the letter were also revealed yesterday.

One resident told the council: “As a taxpayer I am absolutely disgusted at the total waste of my money sending out this stupid letter”, while another said: “You should not have spent money on this letter. If you can’t lead then resign.”

Councillor Shaffaq Mohammed, leader of the Lib Dem group on Sheffield Council, said: “Councillor Dore should apologise to local residents for wasting their time and hard-earned money.”