I was interested to read the remarks by Simon Jones (Messenger, Data delusion, August 4).

Obviously it is Mr Jones who is muddle-headed not Cllr Evans. People may not respond to a survey if they are away, are ill, passed away or unable to read etc. but it makes perfect sense to assume that the majority of people who do not respond are just not interested enough to bother replying.

True research looks at ALL the options.

If only limited data is available then it is reasonable to enquire why that data is limited and then to judge the most likely reason why it is limited. In this case the most sensible reason is that most of the local residents just don't care enough.

Cllr Evans was not gauging public opinion on just those who responded to the survey but what he believed, quite sensibly, to be the opinion of all the residents. Surely Mr Jones can understand this simple fact.

By the way I too do not live in Sale Moor. In fact I live on the Ashton side of the A56 and like the 80 odd percent of Sale Moor residents could not care less if they have a supermarket or not.

H. Fogg
Sale