WE are all familiar with the way the English we speak and write is constantly changing.

New ideas, inventions and trends bring new nouns and verbs to our vocabulary every year - that's what a living language is all about.

Language exists so that people can communicate thoughts, paint pictures with words if you like, in the most accurate possible manner.

But many believe there are other forces at work on the English language which do nothing to promote increased understanding. Rather, they actually hinder it.

One of these is the increased use of jargon by official bodies which, one suspects, often almost revel in composing documents in terms which the rest of us will have difficulty understanding.

Blackburn with Darwen Council has come up trumps in deciding to use the term "powered two-wheelers" or the acronym "PTWs" to refer to what you and I would call motorbikes or motor scooters.

They say they are following "Department of Transport guidelines", and it is true that words have to be precise, especially in any area where lawyers are likely to get involved.

But councils exist to provide a service for us, their customers, and we are entitled to be addressed in plain English.

Our language should not be despoiled with jargon phrases which are barriers to understanding.