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Catastrophe for apostrophe as council leaves it out
IT'S official. Apostrophes have been dropped from road signs by Wakefield council bosses.
The council says it has a policy not to include the punctuation marks in street names because they can lead to "problems and confusion."
Ian Thomson, council director for planning and property, said: "Apostrophes are not generally used in street names as they can lead to problems and confusion when data is transferred electronically for other uses, such as street gazetteers.
"To avoid confusion our practice has been not to use apostrophes."
But local heritage bosses and wordsmiths say the policy is nothing short of dumbing down.
Allan Blaza, president of Pontefract Civic Society, said: "I think it's a cop out. I'm sufficiently rigorous when it comes to the English language, which is a magnificent language, to feel sure that all the grammatical necessities – not niceties – should be observed.
"Nothing annoys me more when I see it misused at greengrocers' shops and even in The Times newspaper.
"I'm quite upset that insufficient attention to this is put in schools.
"It's a means of avoiding what I think is a necessary discipline."
Featherstone writer and broadcaster Ian Clayton said: "I believe there is a decline in grammatical standards in every walk of life.
"The council shouldn't do this. If there should be an apostrophe in a word, they should put one in.
"If I sent something to a publisher and left apostrophes out, my punctuation would be corrected.
"If I left a penny out of my council tax bill, the council would ask me for it, wouldn't they?"
John Richards, founder of the Apostrophe Protection Society, said: "The misuse of apostrophes does make me angry – and bewildered.
"The rules governing their use are so simple that I cannot understand anyone misusing them.
"Wakefield Council is setting a terrible example.
"All across the country teachers are struggling to teach punctuation to their pupils who come back and say that apostrophes are not important 'because the council says so.'
"The council should aim its efforts to ensuring that apostrophes are used correctly, not deciding to erase them altogether. It is choosing the easy way out, dumbing down and showing contempt for the large number of the area's residents who take a pride in the English language."
Council bosses in Birmingham came under fire earlier this year when they were among the first to drop apostrophes from street signs.
They said the decision had been taken in light of several factors, including the need for consistency and the cost of changing existing signs.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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