COUNCILLORS will get a language lesson when they turn up for up for a committee meeting later this month.

The agenda for Durham County Council's overview and scrutiny committee on Monday, September 26, will be written in Italian - accompanied by an English translation.

The stunt has been arranged to mark the European Day of Languages, and it will highlight a report the committee will consider on the increasing reduction in foreign language learning in schools across the country.

Committee chairman Councillor Alan Cox will formally open the meeting in Italian, thanks to coaching from visiting Italian students Giorgia Tommasin and Chiara Rango, who are in Durham on a European work placement programme.

"Clearly there's a novelty value to staging the meeting in this way, but it serves very well to illustrate our traditional weakness as a nation in foreign languages compared to other parts of mainland Europe," said Coun Cox.

"There's always been a degree of arrogance among the British, in that we expect foreign visitors to speak English when they come here and when we visit their country.

"By comparison, English is a common second language throughout the rest of Europe, where it is not uncommon to find people speak more than one language.

"Our two students who have been helping me, Giorgia and Chiara, for instance, speak English, French, German and Spanish as well as Italian.

"We have a lot of catching up to do."

The council's scrutiny sub-committee for lifelong learning has been looking at ways of reversing the decline in the number of secondary pupils studying languages following changes in the National Curriculum.