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Report 'incomprensible to any normal person'
Nov 23, 2006
TOWN councillors have hit out at the 'gobbledygook' jargon used by their district council counterparts.
At a meeting of the town council on Monday evening, members complained about a report from Teesdale District Council which they said was "incomprehensible to any normal person."
Cllr Alan Wilkinson drew the members' attention to a sentence in the report which refers to "involuntary exclusion from the world of work", and pointed out that one word would have sufficed: unemployment.
Former schoolteacher, Cllr Wilkinson said: "Nobody talks like this; nobody reads books written like this. Frankly it's a turn-off, and its not surprising that we are having trouble attracting new members."
The offending document was Teesdale District Council's "sustainability appraisal scoping report for the local development framework core strategy", but Cllr David Wright pointed out that the problem went across the board.
He said: "It simply isn't plain English, and if nobody tells them [the district council] then they will keep on publishing reports like this." No official from Teesdale District Council was available for comment, but Cllr Newton Wood, who is also a member of the district council, said: "This is just the way council reports are written, and if you want to be a councillor then you need to understand that.
"If you go to France, they speak French. Here in the council, we speak like this."
Cllr Wilkinson said: "It looks as though Barney Liar may be fighting a losing battle."