Eric Pickles attacks council's 'disingenuous and unnecessary' decision to axe apostrophes from road signs In a letter in today's Daily Telegraph, Mr Pickles said: "Whilst it's ultimately a matter for local councils, ministers" view is that both England's apostrophes and good grammar should be cherished. If an apostrophe is good enough for Her Majesty's Government, so should it be for Cambridge City Council. I would encourage residents to defend their traditional street names from town halls" over-zealous pen pushers." Cambridge said that it was following Government guidelines when it said it wanted to abolish the punctuation on street signs. However, Mr Pickles took issue with this. He said: "Contrary to its claims, there is no Whitehall diktat demanding the abolition of the English apostrophe. The National Land and Property Gazeteer, overseen by local government, does not force councils to remove them either - councils can continue to use apostrophes and punctuation if that is the official street name. Mr Pickles said that apostrophes on street signs were protected in law. He said: "Numerous Acts of Parliament have required the consent of local people before a street name could be changed." A law dating back to 1907 made clear "councils cannot change a formal street name without the consent of two-thirds of the street's ratepayers." Mr Pickles" intervention came as it emerged that local people in Cambridge have started to add apostrophes to street signs in the city. Armed with marker pens, the group - dubbed locally "guerrilla grammarians" - have started to "correct" the road signs, starting with Scholars Walk [sic] and Pepys Court [sic]. Kathy Salaman, director of the Good Grammar Company, praised the undercover "repair" work, said: "I think it's great that people have done this. I have a nice new set of black marker pens which I shall carry around with me and if I need to I will change signs because it's really important to keep them correct. Miss Salaman continued: "I thought I was one of a few old-fashioned sticklers but I've been overwhelmed by the number of people who have got in touch with me saying we should be promoting the use of the apostrophe, not getting rid of them. Cambridge should be leading by example in this day of trying to improve grammar and educational achievement. Cambridge council justified its decision by saying it wanted to drop the apostrophes to stop any confusion among the emergency services. However Cambridgeshire's police and fire services, as well as East of England Ambulance Service are understood to have no objections to punctuation in road names. The city has said that the consultation on the issue only saw one objection.