HACAN has called on HeathrowAirport to come clean about its surveys carried out by its favourite pollster Populus following the revelations this week about the methods Populus used in a recent survey on fracking. The fracking poll published on Monday, carried out for UK Onshore Oil and Gas (UKOOG), was described by a polling expert as ‘one of the most misleading poll findings I’ve ever seen’. And today it has been revealed that the UKOOG findings have been flatly contradicted by a Government survey found which only 25% of people supported fracking compared to the Populus poll which claimed 57% support. Heathrow has relied on Populus polls, conducted over the phone, to back its claims there is growing support for a third runway at the airport. Heathrow claimed, on the basis of a Populus poll, that there was more support now for a 3rd runway than when it was proposed by the last Labour Government. The poll claimed to show 48% were in favour of a third runway while 34% opposed results which were flatly contradicted by referenda and surveys carried out by Hillingdon, Richmond and Hounslow local authorities which found around 72% of residents opposed a 3rd runway.
See HACAN blog for more details: http://hacan.org.uk/blog/?p=316