REGARDING the letter from Norma and Tony Moore, May 12, 'Supermarket best option'

I don't live in Sale Moor, so I'll stay out of the rights and wrongs of the Warrener Street car park development. However, I couldn't let the letter writers' dodgy use of statistics go unchallenged.

The fact that 80 per cent of people did not respond to Cllr Freeman's 3,000-strong questionnaire about the development cannot be construed to mean that they 'don't seem to care one way or the other'.

The only conclusion that can be drawn is that they did not respond to the survey, for reason or reasons unknown. Maybe there was something good on TV that day, maybe the questionnaire was unappealingly laid out, maybe the questionnaire got slipped in with the junk mail and binned, or maybe those surveyed had something else to do with their time. You simply don't know. You definitely can't infer their opinion.

In my experience a good response rate for an email survey would be approximately 25 per cent, so the Councillor's 20 per cent, response rate doesn't seem too far off the pace (I don't know the exact method of his questionnaire of course).

The statistics given in Norma and Tony's letter only tell us one thing: that 80 per centof respondents were against the development, versus 20 per cent in favour, a ratio of 4:1.

If Norma and Tony wish to use pretzel logic by re-including an assumed 'don't care' opinion from everyone who didn't give any answer, in order to reduce the 'againsts' to 16%, then the 'fors' must also reduce to 4% - still a ratio of 4:1.

I can see why the letter writers have tried this on - their flawed maths appears to convert an 80 per cent opposition to the development, into what they now call "only 16 per cent... this small minority..."

I can only put the mangled statistics in Norma and Tony's letter down to one of two things: ignorance of maths, or a desire to mislead. Perhaps they should clarify which it is.

Simon Jones

Sale