Public consultation about proposed sweeping changes to Enfield Council is a technical disaster and unlikely to bring any worthwhile results, according to a market research expert.

Last month the authority announced plans for a radical shake-up of the way it does business.

It produced a questionnaire called The Future of Local Government in Enfield asking residents to give their views on the proposals and suggest any other changes.

But leading market research consultant Martin Paltnoi claimed the document is haphazard, badly structured, and contains a number of other serious flaws.

He also said the council is open to claims of bias and unaccountability unless any surveys are carried out independently.

"The questionnaire itself is a technical disaster and will not produce any valid results," he said.

Mr Paltnoi was asked to look at the council's document by a friend who found it difficult to understand and took hours to complete it.

He has run his own market research consultancy for 25 years working mainly for large multi-national companies.

Mr Paltnoi is also a full member of the Market Research Society and has given talks and lectures on how to structure questionnaires.

"The questionnaire is confusing," he said. "If you have confusing questions you get a low response rate and unreliable answers."

Mr Paltnoi stressed his views were only his professional opinion on the questionnaire and made no comment about the authority or its politicians.

The questionnaires, which need to be returned by today (Wednesday), were sent out to various groups in the borough.

But residents wanting to take part in the survey had to ask for one to be sent to them or collect it from a council office.

"That was ridiculous," said Mr Paltnoi. "If people have to ask for questionnaires there's not going to be a response to it."

He claimed only people with a point to make about the council would bother to fill in and return the questionnaire.

"I believe it is wrong for a body responsible for the welfare of others, to attempt to improve its means of delivering that responsibility by designing, conducting and evaluating a consultation programme itself," said Mr Paltnoi.

"Therefore it is essential that answers to the inquiry come from an independent third party with the requisite technical abilities. Only then would the results be acceptable to all concerned."

Leader of the Labour-run authority Cllr Jeff Rodin dismissed the claims and said the consultation was in no way meant to be a form of market research.

He said the questionnaire was designed to let the public put forward their views on proposed changes and make suggestions.

But he maintained residents were not limited to a set structure when giving their answers or comments.

All information from the documents would be collated and debated in public by cross-party groups of councillors before any decisions were made.

"I think this market researcher would be better off doing something else," added Cllr Rodin.

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