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There are guidelines for street gazeteers here:

https://www.agi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/BS7666Guid...

4.4.1 Street names The designated street name is usually to be found on the name plate on the street. However, these may not always be correct, and may differ between the ends of the street. Unofficial street names are ones that have not been adopted by the appropriate Highways Authority but may be in common usage, e.g. "The Great North Road". Street names, whether designated or unofficial, should be recorded in full. Abbreviations and punctuation should not be used unless they appear in the designated name, e.g. "Dr Newton's Way". Only single spaces should be used.

So I think all its saying gazetteer editors should not add punctuation if its “missing” from the designated place name.

Punctuation is fine if it already part of the place name.

I think the intention is to preserve the original place name.

So the council is wrong to blame the specification.




Interesting! However the company which runs the official gazetteer has advice, and the reasoning is nonsense:

>GeoPlace does not advise that councils include or remove punctuation in official naming or on the street name plate. Street naming and numbering is a council policy decision.

>However, the Data Entry Conventions documentation does state that GeoPlace would prefer not receive data (including street names) with punctuation.

>This is for two main reasons:

> machine readability – punctuation can be misinterpreted by computers

> usability – for example, if loaded into say an emergency service command and control system and a caller provides a street name, the search will be faster if the search is entered and returned without punctuation.

https://www.geoplace.co.uk/street-naming-and-numbering/guida...




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