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"The Mid Devon council has been accused of killing off the apostrophe. This backlash came after the council abolished the use of the punctuation mark in street signs to avoid confusion.  Authorities at the council made the decision after carrying out a risk assessment. They stated this was to &amp;quot;avoid potential confusion... in times of emergency&amp;quot;. Founder and chairman of the Apostrophe Protection Society John Richards said to The Scotsman: &amp;quot;It is appalling, disgusting and pointless, they have no regard for the English language. &amp;quot;Throughout the area, teachers are doing their best to teach children grammar and the children have the right to say &amp;#039;Why bother?&amp;#039; when the council doesn&amp;#039;t use apostrophes.&amp;quot; Andrew Lacey, communications manager at the council, addded: &amp;quot;Our proposed policy on street naming and numbering covers a whole host of practical issues, many of which are aimed at reducing potential confusion over street names. &amp;quot;Although there is no national guidance that stops apostrophes being used, for many years the convention we&amp;#039;ve followed here is for new street names not to be given apostrophes.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/fun/news/a466221/council-face-backlash-over-apostrophe-ban/>