Liberal Democrats have slammed Labour Council bosses after it emerged that Redcar and Cleveland Council’s budget reports are by far the hardest to understand in the country.
The study by the Manchester Evening News declared the Council’s budget report more complex than Professor Steven Hawking’s ‘A Brief History of Time’.
According to a recent analysis which used four different measures to determine how difficult the budget report was to read, someone would need 22.5 years of education to understand the council’s papers, making it the equivalent of a university doctorate level text.
Steve Jenner from the Plain English Campaign described the contents as ‘gobbledygook’.
Lib Dem Council Group Leader and Finance Spokesman, Councillor Glyn Nightingale, said:
“Professor Hawking will be relieved that his book is less taxing.
"I knew something was wrong when, after I had read the budget reports, I picked up a book on nuclear physics for a bit of light relief!
“But there is a serious side to this. It is undemocratic. People should be able to understand what is being done by their elected councillors. Explaining things in a more complicated way than necessary excludes people.
“Labour’s Council bosses really need to get themselves on a Plain English course.
"Or is there some financial mismanagement that they want to hide?"
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