17,000 complaints over council gobbledegook

Training in 'plain English' will be given to staff at a Staffordshire Council after 17,000 residents called in just one year to complain they were baffled by jargon in letters and publications.

Some £10,000 was wasted in officer time alone dealing with the avoidable queries so now the authority is to produce a top tips guide on the English language. Senior managers and councillors will be offered training workshops on how to keep their English 'plain'.

South Staffordshire Council Staff will be urged to reduce the length of letters by cutting out unnecessary words and references to complex legislation.

It could herald the end of "partner agencies", "community engagement," "gateway reviews" and "holistic approaches" in the district.

Language used by councils in official publications has become notoriously wordy and is often packed full of references to legislation and 'management speak'.

Council chief executive Steve Winterflood acknowledged that residents can be left perplexed by the jargon.

"People don't want to read a letter full of jargon and council-speak when we could tell them exactly what they need to know in half the time" he said.

"We know that councils are big culprits in this. But being clear, concise and losing some of the local government jargon that nobody uses in real life is just common sense.

He added:"We deal with lots of complex issues such as benefits and planning applications, so making sure we get clear and concise information out to local people is crucial."

It comes after lobbying group the TaxPayers' Alliance spoke out about "council gobbledegook", criticising authorities for frustrating residents with "a blizzard of indecipherable nonsense."

Council spokesman Jamie Angus, whose communications department will monitor progress, said: "We're by no means the worst council in the region and our level of avoidable contact has fallen each year over the past two years and looks set to fall again this year too.

"We want the information we produce to be clear and concise so we can make things easier for our customers."