2:43pm Friday 22nd February 2013
Sir, – I would not want to detract from Coun John Coulson’s efforts over two years to rectify the absence of capital ‘N’s on the five signs one saw on entering “northallerton”
(D&S, Feb 15).
However, I think he would be the first to accept the final impetus given to the need to change these unacceptable signs was given by the letter you published last year from a “A Visitor”
who criticised them as casual and ungrammatical, by your photograph accompanying the letter, by my response without any capitals and by my subsequent enquiry about whether you intended to abandon capital letters in your newspaper, all of which caused much amusement locally at the expense of the town council (D&S July 6, Aug 3 and Sept 7).
Only occasionally does such publicity have any effect in local government, but on this occasion the residents of the town can once again thank the Darlington & Stockton Times for the publicity it gave in this case, not least the amusing headings you gave to the various letters – “Capital Loss”, “Making a Case” and “Capital Matter” – and your tongue-incheek assurance to readers, when responding to my tongue-in-cheek enquiry, that you had no plans yourself to abandon the use of capital letters.
The town council is to be congratulated on taking this step to restore the dignity of the town and is to be thanked for spending only £65 to make the change.
DAVID SEVERS Trinity Gardens, Northallerton.
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