‘Tell it like it really is’ call

Plain-speaking Councillor Howard Sykes wants Oldham Council to make its messages crystal clear.

So he’s ordering a report on how to cut jargon and gobbledegook from the local authority’s vocabulary.

Words like ‘holistic’ and ‘spatial strategy’ will be out — and the council could even try to achieve the Plain English Campaign’s Crystal Mark.

Councillor Sykes was reacting to the Local Government Association’s advice to cut out 200 jargon words such as ‘revenue stream’ (money), ‘core message’ (main point), and ‘meaningful consultation’ (talking to people).

The LGA says certain words are so meaningless they can be discarded — such as synergies, contestability and cascading.

Councillor Sykes said: “This is music to my ears.

“I will get a report written to see if we can’t have an approach in plain English. I will take it up with officers and the Chief Executive Charlie Parker.

“There’s also the Plain English Campaign’s Crystal Mark, can’t we do something around that?

“We put a lot of time and effort into our work but what is the point if people don’t understand it?”

And Councillor Margaret Eaton, the LGA chairman, added: “The public sector must not hide behind impenetrable phrases.

“Why do we have to have ‘coterminous, stakeholder engagement,’ when we could just ‘talk to people’ instead?

“During the recession, it is vital that we explain to people in plain English how to get access to the 800 different services that local government provides with taxpayers money.”


Try this one for starters... Second paragraph of a letter from Oldham council.

“As you know we are preparing Oldham’s Core Strategy which will set out long term spatial vision, strategic objectives, a spatial strategy, strategic sites, core policies and a monitoring and implementation framework. We are also preparing the Development Plan Document (DPD) which will set out the generic policies that will manage development. Here in Oldham the Core Strategy and the Development Management Policies DPD will be prepared as a single DPD (called the Core Strategy for short from now on).”