MEMBERS of Wey-mouth and Portland Borough Council are being asked to banish 'gobbledygook' in favour of plain English.

Councillor John Birtwistle is asking fellow members to support a plain English campaign aimed at helping people understand forms, leaflets and contracts.

The council already has a Crystal Mark which recognises the use of clear and concise English in documents and online.

But Coun Birtwistle, with the support of Councillor Christine James, is asking the council to adopt a plain English code at their full meeting tonight.

They believe the code should not only apply to public information but also to internal documents such as committee agendas.

Coun Birtwistle also condemns memos and letters from Whitehall as often being 'extremely difficult to follow'.

Derby City Council was one of the first authorities to introduce such a code and continue to work towards producing simple and easy to understand documents.

They have published a 32-page booklet outlining their plain English code. Included in this booklet is a comment which Coun Birtwistle believes sums up the whole idea.

He said: "They ask would you talk to your family like this? No? Then don't write like that.

"They talk about making things easier to see, like using a larger font when writing to the visually-impaired."

Coun Birtwistle and Coun James suggest that Weymouth and Portland Borough Council should follow suit.

Coun Birtwistle said: "Getting people involved is one of our highest priorities and we won't achieve it without plain English.

"We are actually supposed to be running the borough for the benefit of the people who live here.

"We need to bring back ordinary English."