A prominent Newcastle East resident who has rallied against the Supercars race says she is "hopeful" the Newcastle 500 won't return after a report showed a majority of Newcastle people who responded to an independent survey don't want the race back.
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The Newcastle Herald reported on August 21 the council-commissioned report by KPMG found 37 per cent of Newcastle LGA residents who completed an online survey would support the decision for Newcastle to continue hosting the event.
A City of Newcastle spokesperson said the "Newcastle 500 has been one of the region's most significant events since 2017 and has put Newcastle on the map".
The survey included online and phone responses. The council highlighted the phone survey as "statistically validated", and noted "significant discrepancy" between the two methodologies, with 37 per cent of residents in the online survey saying they wanted the race to return and 55 per cent in the phone survey.
However 10,998 residents filled out the online survey, making up more than 95 per cent of the resident result, and 490 responded to the phone survey, less than 5 per cent of the overall resident result.
The KPMG report said the phone survey required at least 400 participants at a 95 per cent confidence level, a commonly used parameter to accurately reflect the population.
"So whilst it is a smaller sample it is representative of population based on a normal distribution," it said.
Newcastle East Residents Group spokesperson Christine Everingham said she was alarmed that the phone survey included eight residents and four businesses from Newcastle East, the suburb most affected by the event, while 45 residents from Wallsend participated.
"This is damning," Ms Everingham said.
But Ms Everingham said she was feeling "hopeful" the race may not return based on the results of the survey.
"I really cannot see how with so many people so anti this event they can agree to extend it," she said.
"An open survey measures the intensity of sentiment concerning the event.
"People have to be motivated to want to respond.
"So these numbers clearly demonstrate that this event does not unite the city like a costly major event should.
"Instead, it is deeply divisive."
The City of Newcastle spokesperson said as per its commitment, the council "has undertaken broad and thorough consultation on the future of the Newcastle 500 following the final race under the previous five-year agreement with the NSW government and Supercars Australia".
"This agreement included an option to extend the race for a further five years on identical financial terms," they said.
The KPMG report noted 1979 individuals who tried to submit an online survey more than once had their second attempt blocked.
Cookies stopped users being able to submit more than once from the same browser.
KPMG also manually reviewed responses completed close together to ensure they were valid and not a "copy/paste exercise".
"However, the report also notes that an individual could bypass KPMG's protections by using a second, third or fourth device to lodge a repeat online survey response," a City of Newcastle spokesperson said.
"Respondents could also clear their browser cache after completing the survey online to bypass KPMG's protections and make multiple submissions."
IN THE NEWS:
Sage Swinton
Sage Swinton is a news reporter who was born and bred in the Hunter. She has been with the Newcastle Herald since June 2020, and covers Newcastle council as well as other general news.
Sage Swinton is a news reporter who was born and bred in the Hunter. She has been with the Newcastle Herald since June 2020, and covers Newcastle council as well as other general news.
