Clean air neighbourhood polling breached industry rules, market research body says
A professional body for market research has found a poll conducted on behalf of Hammersmith and Fulham Council ahead of adopting a permanent clean air neighbourhood scheme was flawed.
The London borough initially implemented the traffic management scheme in 2022, using an experimental traffic management order.
The scheme aims to cut air pollution by using number plate technology to discourage out-of-borough motorists from using residential streets as cut-throughs. Motorists caught by the scheme are issued a fine.
Ahead of making the scheme permanent in March last year, the council commissioned Opinium to carry out independent opinion polling on doorsteps in the clean air neighbourhood and the rest of the borough.
The poll found that 59% of residents in the Clean Air Neighbourhood trial area either strongly supported or supported the general principle of reducing the amount of out-of-borough traffic using neighbourhood streets as cut-throughs.
According to a March 2024 council report, Opinium's polling "was one of the most comprehensive ever surveys undertaken in this country into a neighbourhood traffic scheme".
It also formed "key elements of a robust suite of consultation and engagement measures which go beyond the guidance laid down by the Secretary of State for Transport", the report said at the time.
The Market Research Society (MRS) later received a complaint about the poll.
After an investigation, MRS's standards concluded that Opinium did not take "reasonable action when undertaking data collection to ensure that participants were not led towards a particular point of view".
It also found that Opinium did not ensure that participants were given the required information to enable participants to give their permission to take part in a data collection exercise, "specifically the general subject of the data collection, and the purpose of the data collection".
In addition, the board found that Opinium did not ensure that participants were not misled when being asked to participate in a project, in breach of rule 32 of the MRS Code of Conduct.
Responding to the board’s findings, the CEO of Opinium, James Endersby, said: “We support the Market Research Society’s review process. We were pleased to see its conclusion that no corrective steps were necessary, but we had already reviewed this study many months ago and put in place additional layers of quality checking in our ongoing commitment to high standards.”
Adam Carey
