Council throws jargon into the civic amenity site

They are the bane of many people's lives - the unintelligible words and phrases dreamt up by bureaucrats with too much time on their hands.

But now, following a period of stakeholder engagement, a local authority has taken its specialist terminology to the civil amenity site.

Or, in plain English, one council has listened to its residents and consigned jargon to the scrapheap.

In a bid to keep things simple, staff at Harrow Council are now forbidden from mentioning "civil enforcement officers" or "school crossing patrollers" when speaking or writing to local residents. Instead, they must refer to them as plain old "traffic wardens" or "lollipop women".

Other long-winded phrases that have been banned include "controlled parking zones", which will become "permit parking or double yellow lines" and "multi-agency approach", which translates as "different groups working on the same thing".

The worst offenders:

Controlled parking zones (CPZ) - Permit parking or double yellow lines

Civil enforcement officers - Traffic wardens

School crossing patroller - Lollipop man/woman

Stakeholder engagement - Asking people what they think

Civic amenity site - Rubbish tip

Public realm - Open areas like streets, parks or pavements

Multi-agency approach - Different groups working on the same thing