Transport for London is currently refusing to provide copies of the Cable Car satisfaction survey it cherry picked approval ratings from earlier this week.
Having forgotten to tell us how many customers gave the capital’s least used form of public transport “a score of 93 out of a possible 100” TfL’s press office is blocking all requests for a copy of the report so that we can see for ourselves.
Journalists are instead being instructed to wait for more TfL selected results to be published online at the end of the month.
If TfL is confident enough about the survey to press release it this week, why isn’t it willing to hand over the full document at the same time?
Cherry picking good news from a publicly funded survey and then using more public cash to publicise those chosen gems while refusing to back up the claims with evidence makes TfL guilty of the sort of practice Eric Pickles wants to outlaw.
Eventually the full survey will have to be provided but TfL, not for the first time, seem determined to make getting it as lengthy and awkward a process as possible.
Luckily it should fall within the scope of my FOI which TfL now have less than two full working days to respond to if they’re not going to once again breach their statutory limits.
But as this is an organisation which needed 6 months to reveal how many employees it had and how much it paid them, my expectations of getting an answer on time aren’t high.
