North Yorkshire Council is to abolish apostrophes on road signs.
The news comes after a Harrogate resident, who wished to remain anonymous, contacted the Stray Ferret to complain about a grammatical error on the new St Mary’s Walk sign in the town.
He said the sign was “spelled incorrectly with no apostrophe”, adding it had been placed opposite another St Mary’s Walk sign, which is grammatically correct.
The Stray Ferret put the resident’s concerns to the council. A spokesperson said in response:
“Regarding grammar, the council, along with many others across the country, has opted to eliminate the apostrophe from street signs.”
The new format will be “adopted when road signs are replaced”, they added.
The resident responded to the council’s move:
“I do not feel I have been consulted about the council deciding to use poor English language and the council has not responded to me when I raised the issue.”
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St Mary’s Walk is not the only Harrogate road to fall victim to grammatical errors. St Winifred’s Road, on the south side of the town, also has contradictory spellings on signs.
The signs reflect the change of format, meaning the older one includes an apostrophe and another does not.
The contradicting signs. Pic: Google Maps.
A similar initiative back in 2014 which proved less than popular.
The Guardian reported in 2014 that Cambridge City Council’s decision to abolish apostrophes led to a backlash from “self-declared defenders of grammar” who used marker pens to fill in missing apostrophes on road signs.
