John Richards, founder of the Apostrophe Protection Society, said the decision was ‘absolute defeatism’.

Mr Richards, a retired journalist, said: ‘This is setting a terrible example. All over Birmingham, and in other cities, teachers are trying to teach children correct grammar and punctuation. Now children will go around Birmingham and see utter chaos.

‘If you don’t have apostrophes, is there any point in full stops, or semi-colons, or question marks? Is there any point in punctuation at all?’