In a world where residents are “customers” and “interdepartmental blue sky thinking” is king, there seems to be no stopping the tide of jargon flowing into our everyday lives.

This week the Local Government Association (LGA) have launched a new list of 200 jargon words, which it wants banned from all business and council documents.

The naughty list includes expressions such as, “core message” instead of main point, and “lowlights” instead of worst bits.

Currently Epping Forest District Council is the holder of a silver award for its use of English - but has failed to get the top “crystal mark” for using plain language.

A quick scan through documents on the council website show that many of the offending words, including "actioned" (87 hits), "conditionality" (52 hits) and “meaningful consultation” (24 hits) are still being widely used.

Epping Forest District Council Leader Cllr Diana Collins said: “We want as much plain English as possible, because we want people to be able to understand us.”

When asked about the use in the EFDC website she said: "‘Actioned’ isn’t too bad - at least it shows we’re doing something.”

She added: “We have tried to keep a lid on it but obviously we can do better.”

One eye-watering example comes from the Council’s Performance Improvement Unit, whose mission statement reads: “Our Performance Improvement Unit works to ensure that the Council provides best value services and that the authority continually improves its performance in order to meet the needs and expectations of users of our services.

“The Unit provides consultancy advice and support across the Council to drive and monitor continuous improvement, leading to improved services and outcomes, and fulfils a variety of roles.”

So what does that mean?

Cllr Chris Whitbread, the member responsible for the “performance improvement unit”, said: “There’s a lot of words there - basically it means delivering our services and to a good standard.”

He added: “So many of those things are down to word bureaucracy. I would love it to be as simple as possible.”

Chairman of the Local Government Association, Cllr Margaret Eaton, said: “The public sector must not hide behind impenetrable jargon and 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 eight hundred different services that local government provides with taxpayers’ money - in which case I hope this article is used as a beacon by area-based agencies to open a dialogue with their clients."

ON THE LIST:

Across-the-piece; actioned; advocate agencies; ambassador; area based; area focused; autonomous; baseline; beacon; benchmarking; best practice; blue sky thinking; bottom-up; CAAs; can do culture; capabilities; capacity; capacity building; cascading; cautiously welcome; challenge; champion; citizen empowerment; client; cohesive communities; cohesiveness; collaboration; commissioning; community engagement; compact; conditionality; consensual; contestability; contextual; core developments; core message; core principles; core value; coterminosity; coterminous; cross-cutting; cross-fertilisation; customer democratic legitimacy; democratic mandate; dialogue; direction of travel; distorts spending priorities; double devolution; downstream; early win; edge-fit; embedded; empowerment; enabler; engagement; engaging users; enhance; evidence base; exemplar; external challenge; facilitate; fast-track; flex; flexibilities and freedoms framework; fulcrum; functionality; funding streams; gateway review; going forward; good practice; governance guidelines; holistic; holistic governance; horizon scanning; improvement levers; incentivising; income streams; indicators; initiative; innovative capacity; inspectorates; interdepartmental; interface; iteration; joined up; joint working; LAAs; level playing field; lever; leverage; localities; lowlights; MAAs; mainstreaming; management capacity; meaningful consultation; meaningful dialogue; mechanisms; menu of options; multi-agency; multidisciplinary; municipalities; network model; normalising outcomes; outcomes; output; outsourced; overarching; paradigm; parameter; participatory; partnership working; partnerships; pathfinder; peer challenge; performance network; place shaping; pooled budgets; pooled resources; pooled risk; populace; potentialities; practitioners; predictors of beaconicity; preventative services; prioritisation; priority; proactive; process driven; procure; procurement; promulgate; proportionality; protocol; provider vehicles; quantum; quick hit; quick win; rationalisation; rebaselining; reconfigured; resource allocation; revenue streams; risk based; robust; scaled-back; scoping; sector wise; seedbed; self-aggrandisement; service users; shared priority; shell developments; signpost; single conversations; single point of contact; situational; slippage; social contracts; social exclusion; spatial; stakeholder; step change; strategic; strategic priorities; streamlined; sub-regional; subsidiarity; sustainable; sustainable communities; symposium; ­­synergies; systematics; taxonomy; tested for soundness; thematic; thinking outside of the box; third sector; toolkit; top-down; trajectory; tranche; transactional; transformational; transparency; upstream; upward trend; utilise; value-added; vision; ­visionary; welcome; wellbeing; worklessness.