Ribble Valley Councillors welcomed the decision of Local Government Minister Grant Shapps to scrap the Place Survey, one of the largest surveys in Europe that was due to be conducted by local authorities this autumn. Councillor Terry Hill, Vice Chairman of the Planning committee and Ribble Valley Councillor for Whalley commented; ''The move to scrap the survey is part of concerted efforts by the new Government to release councils from Whitehall control - leaving them free to respond flexibly and effectively to the needs of their residents. ''We have been constantly in the last 13 years under Whitehall control , having to meet centrally dictated targets and spend vast sums of council tax payers money meeting vetting requirements of central government . ''The scrapping of Place follows the scrapping of Comprehensive Area Assessments by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles in June, making councils more accountable to residents rather than ministers in Whitehall. The abolition of Regional targets for housing leave councils with greater local control over planning policy. ''These announcements also follow on from the new Government's plans to require councils to publish online their spending over £500; to stop Town Hall publications which compete with local newspapers; and to block the practice of councils and quangos hiring agencies to lobby Government. '' The Place Survey was an example of wasteful municipal spending - which required council officials to ask residents a range of intrusive personal questions. These surveys are a cosmetic exercise which never change anything. The funding can now be spent on vital public services not diverted into providing useless information for Whitehall. The Place Survey is a postal survey conducted by every council in England. Introduced in 2008, it involves over half a million residents and is estimated to cost more than £5 million to run. Results have been fed back to central Government and used to measure councils' performance on a range of centrally-imposed targets |