A COLD-CALL row has blown up as Wirral Council launches a telephone consultation questioning householders about their shopping and leisure habits.

A total of 1,100 people will be phoned over the next two weeks by a consultancy firm in a project to "build up a robust picture of where people shop and how town and district centres are performing."

But the move has been blasted by a Lib Dem councillor who says residents "do not expect their council tax to be spent encouraging nuisance calls."

Oxton councillor Stuart Kelly said: “I'm appalled the council is allowing its consultant to carry out cold telephone calling of residents.

“I have campaigned against cold calling and last year successfully persuaded the council to invest in cold call blockers to protect vulnerable people from this menace.

"That project showed that the quality of life improved when these types of nuisance calls were reduced

“Now I discover the council intends to unleash more than 1,000 of its own cold calls on local residents." 

he added: "Everyone I speak to about cold calling hates it and does not expect their council taxes to be spent encouraging these nuisance calls

“There is no reason why they can’t carry out their survey work in other, less intrusive ways."

An e-mail sent by a senior officer to all 66 councillors explains: "The household survey is a vital element in building up a robust picture of where people shop and how town and district centres are performing.

"We are unable to tell people in advance that they may be asked to participate in the survey – the telephone numbers are selected at random by NEMS Market Research and I should stress neither the consultants nor officers are given names or telephone numbers of individuals selected.

"This survey will not include any questions relating to an individual’s income, but will seek to identify approximate levels of spend on food and non-food goods and leisure activities, including shopping via the internet."

It says questions will try to identify where and how frequently householders do their food and non-food shopping and visit leisure facilities such as the cinema.

All data is confidential and individual respondents cannot be identified in the final results which are supplied to officers in aggregate form.