Banned words still on council website

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 23rd Apr 2009

Banned jargon is used more than 150,000 times on North Somerset Council's website.

The Local Government Association banned the use of 200 words and phrases earlier this month to ensure council advice was easily understood during the recession.

But words like taxonomy, cross-fertilisation, contestability and benchmarking remain on the council's web pages.

Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate for Weston Mike Bell said: "This list shows that gobbledegook continues to be the dominant language in our town hall.

"Whilst jargon might have its place in professional circles, information for the public should be as clear as possible.

"A lot of this gibberish comes from national and European government, but the council should be taking a leading in communicating in plain English.

"Councils have a duty, not only to provide value for money to local people, but also to tell people what they get for the tax they pay.

"Nobody is perfect, and I appreciate it takes time to change documents that have been there a while, but most of the reports put up since the LGA ruling still contain the banned words.

"There should be more effort made to change the current and future reports even if they leave the historic documents as they are."

The worst offenders on the council's website are framework, which is used 16,500 times, strategic, which features 14,400 times, and practitioners, which appears 12,500.

A council spokesman said: "Our website has just been rated one of the top 12 unitary authority websites in the country. All council websites across the country are surveyed each year by the Society of Information Technology Management. The reviewers praised our website for being 'very enjoyable to visit, with a strong navigation and good quality content… a very positive experience'."