NOBODY'S perfect. When newspapers get things wrong, we issue apologies and we publish corrections. Quite right too.

After a disagreement with our significant other, many of us take a deep breath and apologise (even if deep down we suspect there might have been fault on all sides).

That’s because admitting when you’ve made a mistake, and trying to move on, and promising to do better next time, is the mature thing to do.

So we applaud new council leader Councillor Dan Yates today, who this week issued a heartfelt apology about a mistake made by the council.

Brighton and Hove City Council had told campaigner Valerie Paynter that she could no longer email the planning department to comment on applications. Instead she would have to log in and use an online form.

That might have been off-putting to older residents and the form didn’t work on older smartphones.

The council had said the same thing to a lot of residents and some of its own councillors too. Plenty of people were unhappy about it.

It may not have been the most exciting news story of the week. But the ability of residents to have their voices heard by the people who take decisions which affect their lives is a fundamental democratic principle.

When The Argus asked the council what was going on, we were told the changes were down to the new GDPR data legislation which has cluttered up everyone’s emails for the last two weeks.

But we had our doubts and asked other councils. They said that was nonsense.

Now after investigating the matter, Councillor Yates has reversed the policy, opened the council’s inboxes once again and written a personal apology to Ms Paynter.

Some of the council watchers among us will have had our doubts when Councillor Yates pledged to build a more transparent council, focused on customer service, when he became leader last month.

Fewer will have those doubts today.