U-turn over apostrophes ban praised

A council has been praised for its “sensible decision” to reverse a policy of banning apostrophes on street signs.
By The Newsroom
Published 7th Feb 2014, 08:50 BST

Cambridge City Council faced criticism from self-declared defenders of grammar for its decision to remove punctuation in new road names, with some campaigners using marker pens to fill in apostrophes missing from signs.

The local authority claimed it was only following national guidelines which warned punctuation could confuse emergency services.

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Tim Bick, leader of Cambridge City Council, said an “executive decision” had now been taken 
to make clear that for future street names “we will not be obliged to avoid proper punctuation”.

He added: “We rue the day we allowed ourselves to be influenced by a bureaucratic guideline which nobody has been able to defend to us now that it has come under the spotlight.”