A Somerset councillor has branded jargon used by his authority's officers as "b*******s" in a plea for reports which the wider public can understand.
Councillor Simon Carswell, one of two Liberal Democrat members for the Street division, made his decidedly Anglo-Saxon utterance at an audit committee meeting in Taunton on Thursday morning (October 29).
The committee was discussing a report on the council's ongoing transformation programme, which seeks to save money by changing the way key services are delivered.
Mr Carswell, exasperated by the jargon contained within the officer's report, described the content as "bollocks" and called for future updates to be more accessible for the general public.
Sara Cretney, the officer who wrote the report, said she would take Mr Carswell's feedback on board and endeavour to use clearer language in future.
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Mr Carswell took particular issue with the later section of Ms Cretney's report, which pledged that her officers would "work with the council’s transformation partner [Newton Consulting] to develop robust and detailed transformation plans for the first wave of diagnostic outputs".
He said: "I think the Campaign for Plain English would have a field day with this report.
"The amount of corporate speak and jargon in here - I'm sure if I were to ask on any particular point: 'what does that mean?', I'd get a three-word answer.
"So why not just put three words instead of all this 'robust diagnostic outputs' b******s?"
Councillor Mike Hewitson, who chaired the meeting, apologised for Mr Carswell's language, which he described as "fruity" and "Anglo-Saxon", and asked the committee to "take the temperature down a little" with any additional feedback.
Ms Cretney, the council's service director for strategy, performance and communications, responded: "We're happy to look at this again.
"It's always good to get clear feedback on a report, and I do understand that when you're dealing with a programme like this, there will be elements that will come through that might sound odd.
"I will endeavour to use plain English even more."
The council is expected to spend up to £20m on its transformation programme over the next few years - with a previous report to the audit committee in late-September warning that the programme was "at risk" of not delivering the promised levels of savings.
A further update on the programme will come before the council's corporate and resources scrutiny committee on Wednesday (November 11).
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