COUNCIL bosses have been slapped down by a polling company after claiming a survey about plans for an Oxfordshire super authority was ‘misleading’.

The poll by independent firm Ipsos MORI found 80 per cent of people in the county knew little or nothing about the proposals, which could see the six biggest councils abolished to save £20m a year.

It was commissioned for £43,000 by Oxford City Council and West Oxfordshire and Cherwell district councils, who are opposed to the changes.

Oxfordshire County Council, a supporter of the scheme, said questions exploited ‘confusion about two-tier local government’ but yesterday this claim was rejected by Ipsos MORI boss Ben Page.

Speaking to the Oxford Mail, Mr Page said the findings were ‘what you would expect’, adding: “The fact is that most people do not know much about local government. They want decisions made at a local level and they want value for money – whether you can easily do both of those things is an ongoing debate.

“But I would strongly reject any allegations that our survey is in any way biased or misleading – I looked at these questions myself and I really cannot see it.

“We have worked with the county council, and the city council, for many years and I don’t want to fall out with anyone. Clearly, different people will take different views on the findings but our job is simply to try to measure objectively what people think about these issues.”

The survey by Ipsos MORI used a sample of 1,950 people. It found 82 per cent of respondents had little or no understanding of plans for a super council, which were revealed by the county council in January.

The survey also found respondents favoured services such as housing, street cleaning, leisure centres, planning, waste collection being ran at a ‘district or city level’ This was touted by the city council as proof people did not support the super council proposals, which would see these services ran by one county-wide authority.

But a county council spokesman said: “MORI was commissioned to run a survey to support negative campaign tactics, with questions that exploit residents’ understandable confusion about two-tier local government.

“The survey was conducted against the backdrop of misleading statements about a ‘takeover’ by a ‘remote unitary county council’ when the fact is the proposal is for an entirely new council.

“The survey also misled residents by suggesting unitary councillors would not be locally elected. Oxford, Cherwell and West Oxfordshire councils have spent large six figure sums on consultants, campaigns and pollsters without putting forward a single workable proposal for the public to consider.

“What they don’t tell people is the cost of the status quo.”