A council who removed apostrophes from local street names in order to "avoid potential confusion" has reversed the decision.
The news had been met with outrage from local residents and groups such as the Apostrophe Protection Society. Mid Devon council has responded to the criticism and now plan to reinstate apostrophes in street names, Metro reports.
Authorities at the council made the decision after carrying out a risk assessment. They stated this was to "avoid potential confusion... in times of emergency".
Founder and chairman of the Apostrophe Protection Society John Richards said to The Scotsman "It is appalling, disgusting and pointless, they have no regard for the English language.
"Throughout the area, teachers are doing their best to teach children grammar and the children have the right to say 'Why bother?' when the council doesn't use apostrophes."
However, following the backlash, Councillor Peter Hare-Scott has decided to reverse the decision, saying he was "not happy" about using incorrect English.
"The convention not to use apostrophes when naming new streets has been in place since long before this administration took over," he said.
"Personally I'm not happy about using English that's incorrect and don't find this acceptable.
"We are reviewing the situation and I shall be recommending to cabinet on March 28 that they amend the policy so that street names may indeed in future have apostrophes."
The proposal planned to remove all punctuation from street names as well as ensuring none were named after a living person. Street names that could be shortened to become offensive were also banned.