[Theodores]

In the UK, if you venture from a side street to a main road, the chances are that there won't be a sign to tell you what that main road is, unless you venture down that main road to where it meets another main road. This can be a considerable distance.

I am all for keeping in the apostrophes as they are mini 'flashcards' to help the youngsters learn the value of punctuation. I also think that it is out of respect for residents, if I was on 'St. Mary's Road' and I had to write 'st marys rd' then I would worry that people outside Yorkshire might think I was illiterate.

One day a UK county will do an excellent job of signs, so people always know where they are without SatNav. Remember that many signs were removed just in case the Germans arrived, and we couldn't have them finding their way around, could we?

North Yorkshire council could trial some best practice signage that involves having actual signs instead of making the punctuation vanish. They could get an unexpected tourism boost from doing so with mildly fewer cars on the roads.