DEVON S councils have been warned against using rubbish and indecipherable English - and drawn up a hit list of words and phrases that shouldn t be used.
DEVON'S councils have been warned against using 'rubbish' and indecipherable English - and drawn up a hit list of words and phrases that shouldn't be used.
The Local Government Association have begun a campaign against meaningless and misleading jargon, and said that some words should be avoided so councils can 'communicate affectively'.
The LGA's list includes suggested translations such as 'measuring' instead of councils favourite 'benchmarking'; 'delay' for 'slippage'; 'redundancies' for 'streamlining services' or 'modernisation' and 'buy' for procure and 'robust' for, well, seemingly anything.
LGA chairman Margaret Eaton said: "The public sector must not hide behind indecipherable jargon and phrases.
"Why do we have to 'stake holder engagement' or 'consultations' when we could just 'talk to people' instead?
"Councils have a duty not only to provide value for money to local people but tell people what they get for the tax they pay.
"If a council fails to explain what it does in plain English then local people will fail to understand its relevance to them or why they should bother to turnout and vote.
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