IT takes a special skill to write the city council reports which are available to councillors and the public.

All too often, it seems they have been written with the express intention of ensuring nobody can figure out what the author is talking about.

Either that, or whoever writes them is paid by the word resulting in an irresistible temptation to use 10 words when only one would do.

For example, the Evening Times recently asked the council if there is an email address which people can contact if they want to get involved with volunteering.

The reply was as follows: "The report states that once approved the council will share the policy with ALEOs and working through strategic volunteering governance group, will encourage and support ALEOs to develop their own volunteering polices and reporting processes in order that a holistic picture of volunteering can be gained across the family."

Does that mean yes or no? Your guess is as good as mine.

Some of us have covered council meetings for decades and have become used to the arcane language used by some officials when writing reports.

But there are still times when sentences like the one above leaves us scratching our heads.

Here are a couple of other examples taken from recent city council reports.

* The project was initiated as an immediate and practical response to the challenges facing a group of children growing up in a relatively scarce urban environment.

* The rent will be subject to annual indentation uplifts.

* The fenestration of the building has been characterised by the surrounding context and the functionality of the accommodation.

* Within this framework no segmentation exercise was carried out.

Glasgow councillors claim to be keen to involve the people of the city in the work they do.

They have introduced a webcam in the City Chambers so council tax payers can watch the full council meetings from the comfort of their own homes.

They have taken certain council committee meetings into the local community to try and persuade more people to sit in and see what exactly they do.

Committee and council papers are posted online so anyone interested can spend a cheery evening reading through them.

The problem there is who is going to battle through a pile of papers they don't understand.

The time has come for Glasgow councillors to adopt the policy of the Plain English Campaign and ensure reports are written in something vaguely resembling everyday language.

It has been campaigning since 1979 against gobbledygook, jargon and misleading public information.

Nobody is suggesting the city council is giving the public misleading information but it is guilty of regular gobbledygook and jargon.