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Calls to cut council jargon
By Rebecca Connop PriceAugust 07, 2009
A COUNCILLOR flummoxed by acronyms in Hart District Council’s planning literature has called for a return to plain English.
Cllr Tim Davies, ward member for Fleet West, spoke out against planning officers’ use of acronyms during a meeting of the full council.
In an overview of planning decisions that councillors were being asked to approve, officers used acronyms such as SUDS, BREEAM and CIRIA without defining their meaning.
Cllr Davies told councillors at a meeting of full council on Thursday last week: “I think the documents should be plain English. To pepper this with acronyms is not really helpful.”
The Conservative councillor then asked the group if anyone could tell him what CIRIA stood for.
When there was no response, he added: “My point has been made – no-one actually knows the answer.”
Council chairman Sharyn Wheale resolved to ask officers to write out technical terms in full before providing the acronyms.
Afterwards, Cllr Davies said: “We are doing a disservice to the electorate if we’re providing information in Greek.”
Peter Tipton, from the Yateley Society, said he was also concerned about overcomplicated planning documents. But he said the problem had been around for a long time.
“I first spoke at a public inquiry in Yateley in November 1976, so I have had to relearn many acronyms as the planning system has changed over 30-plus years.
“The trouble is, the planning system has recently changed completely with a new set of acronyms to learn and much greater complexity.
“Much more important than learning acronyms is that councillors, of all people, learn how the planning system now works. It is up to officers to teach them and the councillors’ own willingness to learn.”
He hoped councillors were sent on courses or given in-house training sessions.
He added: “If we, in the civic trust movement, can more-or-less keep up and perhaps point out to officers how they might improve things, then one would hope that councillors really know what is going on.
“After all, it is they who ultimately make the decisions, not the officers. If councillors can’t understand the system, how can any ordinary member of the public understand it?”
A spokesman for the Plain English campaign, a charity which calls for organisations to cut jargon from their publications, said people often complained about planning documents.
“Planning, because of its technical nature, is a minefield. For all our work over 30 years trying to get councils to use plain English, we’re still struggling with that one,” she said.
She said it was possible for every council to make even the most technical things comprehensible.
“It does not mean over-simplifying everything and making everything one syllable.
"To make it understandable, you may have to explain it further and provide a glossary at the beginning of the document so that terms can be defined right from the start,” she said.
In July, the Plain English Campaign launched an initiative calling on the government to introduce a plain English standard, which all authorities must adhere to.
The spokesman said the organisation did not wish to interfere but wanted to promote clarity and honesty.
She said: “We know language is creative and it does change, and has to, but the reality is when it comes to dealing with the public, information that hinders understanding is not useful. You can’t afford to get too creative with it.”
And in case you were wondering, here is a glossary:
SUDS: Sustainable Drainage Systems;
BREEAM: Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method ; and
CIRIA: The Construction Industry Research and Information Association.
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