The Cambridge street with three names following council blunder

[Evil Eye]

Council workers have erected three road signs on the same street all with three different spellings.

The signs for Worts' Causeway in Cambridge - named after 17th century landowner Sir William Worts - read Worts, Worts' and Wort's.

Cambridge City Council is already facing criticism for abolishing all grammar from signs and some locals have started adding their own apostrophes.

Marketing expert Jeremy Jones, 33, who lives on the street with three names, said: "We shouldn't be removing punctuation from road signs.

"The whole point is that it's named after an individual and it's part of the character of the area.



"If you remove it, it takes out that heritage. But if the council is going to have a policy, it should apply it correctly."

Cllr John Hipkin, an independent member on Cambridge City Council and a former English teacher, agreed.

He said: "We don't want any warts on Sir William Worts' name. He should be properly remembered."

Kathy Salaman, director of the Cambridge-based Good Grammar Company, said the apostrophe should come after the 's' - making Worts' the correct spelling.

She said: "My understanding is that it is named after somebody and so the apostrophe has to come after the s.

"You could add an additional 's' after that but it is a matter of preference really.

"The other two variations of the street name are certainly wrong."

The move to ban apostrophes from all signage in the city came in the light of new national guidance which warned punctuation could confuse emergency services.

Council bosses were widely criticised for dropping apostrophes with local government secretary Eric Pickles wading in to blame the ban on "overzealous pen pushers".

But despite the confusion a council spokeswoman has claimed there are no plans to remove the incorrect signs.

She said: "Whilst we agree the correct form of usage is Worts' Causeway, our records show the name has been represented in various forms over the years.

"Having looked at documents produced by others we can also see the same variations appearing over time as well.

"Whilst there may be an inconsistency, we don't believe this is causing confusion locally.

"We are not proposing to replace the signs at this time as this would not be a good use of council taxpayers' money."

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/10609273/The-Cambridge-street-with-three-names-following-council-blunder.html


Horrible. Standards are clearly low

 

[Jazzy]

Well, no matter how you spell the name they all sound the same!

 

[Evil Eye]

Then they should just use the IPA instead.

 

[Sinon]

Welcome to England, where our council can't fucking speak English

 

[Evil Eye]

Welcome to England, where our council can't fucking speak English

Who elects these people?

 

[Nebulous]

Welcome to England, where our council can't fucking speak English

Who elects these people?

The people of England?

 

[Evil Eye]

The people of England?

All right, better question, "Why are these people elected?"

 

[Sinon]

Welcome to England, where our council can't fucking speak English

Who elects these people?

I'm not sure if they are elected, or just hired like a regular job.