Writing Plainly Leads to National Recognition for NPDC

Efforts to communicate clearly with the public have resulted in New Plymouth District Council reaching the finals of a national plain English award.


Last Friday (16 November) the council was one of three finalists vying for the title of Best Plain English Website at the NZ Plain English Awards in Wellington. The other two finalists were the National Library of New Zealand and RaboPlus Bank, with the National Library taking out the award.

NPDC Manager Communications Nick Maybury says it has been a challenge to provide information about the council’s varied services and facilities in a style that is easy to understand.

“We are dealing with information on subjects as varied as engineering projects, public events and strategic planning, so we were pretty proud to be the only local government website among the finalists,” he says.

“We know we’re far from perfect as industry jargon comes with the territory for government and local government, but we’re determined to improve the clarity of our communications with our customers.”

The judges said the council’s website is excellent and straightforward, using a clean page design to provide accessible information. The judges said NPDC knows its audiences and focuses on them, using excellent task-oriented menus and pages on its site.