24 February (Part 3) - “How to lie with statistics”. Bexley has 7th best roads
While archiving yesterday’s Cabinet meeting audio file I noted that there was an abnormally long interval since the previous one.
Investigation showed that I had entirely missed the January meeting. Not just a
case of recording it and finding there was no time to report on it as
occasionally happens, but not even noticed there was a meeting!
With some embarrassment I discovered that it had a direct bearing on
the current pothole controversy so here is the report on the relevant portion
of the missed meeting to bring things up to date and arguably modify today’s earlier potholing blog. (Part 2).
From Cabinet Member Richard Diment. “Road maintenance spend is well on target
which is one of the reasons we got a Green from the Department of Transport on
the Spend score ratings but I wanted to refer to the Condition part of the
scorecard which also gave us Green.”
“The methodology does take a bit of getting your head around but it is available
on the website and I think I have now understood it. If you look at the metrics
our A class roads were given a score of 80·5 and B and C roads were 95·5 and unclassified were
at 82. An average score of 86.
Extremely good news. It is the 7th highest score of any Council.”
Leader David Leaf added that the Prime Minister had still not responded to the
emailed corrections he sent to him last year but the threatened grant cut did not
come about because Bexley met all the conditions requires. So much for the ATSM
for BH & C ranting in Parliament!
Richard Diment chipped in that the Prime Minister’s own borough had an average
score of 47·3. Barely half of Bexley’s.
Labour Leader Stefano Borella said he understood how the 7th position was
calculated. “We have put the three ratings together, done the table and we are
7th but if you look at them individually, on the A roads we are 72nd, B and C
roads we are at number one, very good, and for Unclassified 27th. If you average it it is 34th.”
But that is not the way meaningful averages work. Most roads will be B and C rated and being
number one for them will have a big impact on the overall result. They are by far the majority of
roads. David Leaf said that shaky mathematics is why Labour should never be let loose on public finances.
Richard Diment added that “what matters is the condition of our roads and our
roads are as good as any you will find almost anywhere in the country” and
quipped that he has a book entitled “How to Lie with Statistics” which he was happy to loan out.
Whatever you might think of Labour and their MPs’ propensity to fib, locally in the
shape of Stefano Borella we have someone who is uncomfortable with that and happy to own up to the
truth. And then spin it where possible to serve his masters!