A council Supercars survey has sparked concerns about the integrity of the data after reports of people filling it out multiple times and the ability to enter fake details.
City of Newcastle is asking residents to have their say on Supercars to gauge interest in the event returning to the city for another five years.
This year's race was the final in an agreement between the council, the NSW Government and Supercars Australia.
The consultation includes an online survey open to the whole community, drafted by consultants KPMG, which closes this Friday.
It asks for the number one benefit and drawback of the event and includes questions such as "To what extent do you agree or disagree that the benefits of the event for Newcastle outweigh the disruption?" and "If the NSW Government and Supercars Australia first agree to extend, would you support the City of Newcastle agreeing to host the Newcastle 500 for another five years if the annual total cost was no more than $1.6 million?"
The council is also conducting a phone survey of 600 randomly selected residents and businesses within Newcastle, as well as focus groups.
The Herald has been contacted by numerous people raising issues with the online survey.
Some residents reported being able to fill in the survey multiple times from the one device.
"This goes for both residents and non residents of Newcastle, and for supporters and non supporters of the Supercars," one person said.
"It should be declared null and void and withdrawn immediately."
A Cooks Hill woman also said she filled out the survey online, and a few days later was contacted by phone call.
"She said they were conducting research, she never asked if I had already done it," the resident said.
"I then realised the questions were familiar."
The Cooks Hill resident said they were not against the race, but believed it should not take place in a "built-up area".
"It's too much of an inconvenience for one weekend," she said.
"It takes six weeks to set up and three weeks to take down."
Further concerns have been raised about who is completing the questionnaire. The survey asks the respondent to enter their residential suburb, but there isn't any requirement to prove this is correct. People who say they live outside of Newcastle are also able to complete it.
"Isn't it unethical and wrong for anyone outside of the local government area to be able to, and actually, comment or influence the spending of ratepayers' money?" a resident said.
Newcastle East Residents Group president Joan Browning wrote to council detailing similar queries.
She said the survey was "very narrow" as it includes a single answer, multiple choice response for the benefits and drawbacks of the event when NERG argues there are "cumulative impacts".
"Narrowing the focus down to a single issue is misleading," Ms Browning wrote.
"NERG is concerned ... that KPMG will be unable to deliver a truly unbiased view of the race from residents and businesses.
"A simple way to get a reflective view from businesses most impacted by this event would be to survey all businesses in, and east of, Darby Street. It would not be onerous for this to be completed."
She continued saying NERG "awaits the completion and release of the survey results with some trepidation".
"Many residents and local businesses even question whether an unbiased survey is possible when all current and future decision makers have come out in favour of strongly supporting the continuation of this event - our Lord Mayor, the incumbent Liberal government, Chris Minns and Destination NSW have all publicly voiced their support for the event.
"Things certainly appear stacked against those ultimately impacted by this race."
A City of Newcastle spokesperson acknowledged "that some people may choose to provide false or misleading information in the online survey, or provide multiple responses", but said KPMG said used "best practice research methodology".
"KPMG has methods in place to manage the integrity of survey data, with processes to detect and minimise respondents who are lodging multiple surveys," the spokesperson said.
"It is not possible to exclude people from outside of Newcastle.
"The phone survey is a randomised statistically valid survey to give a normal population view to avoid self-selection bias. A representative group in terms of ward/location, age, and gender will be targeted."
The Herald asked the council how much it was spending on the survey. The spokesperson said the KPMG contract "was funded as part of CN's annual $1.6 million budget for the Newcastle 500".
Analysis of the feedback will take place during April and May, before a final report is released for consideration by the elected council.
The final track deconstruction is taking place this week around the foreshore. Foreshore Park car park and Wharf Road are due to re-open on Friday.
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