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The bright orange markings that coined a Birkenhead road 'Wotsit Street' are to be removed after residents condemned it.
According to the BBC, Wirral Council leader Paula Basnett has said local people were right to criticise the £300,000 traffic calming scheme on Grange Road West, and has asked officers to remove the features by the end of the month. The street furniture and planters will be donated to schools and community groups.
The temporary measures to calm traffic were put in place in 2025. When they were installed, the council said the coloured design helped to change the street "without the need for major civil work".
Humorously, the street quickly became known as Wotsit Street because the orange shapes on the ground were thought to resemble the cheesy brand of crisps. As you can imagine, residents of Birkenhead have relentlessly mocked the scheme on social media.
Debbie Taylor, who has lived in Birkenhead since birth, said the markings could not be removed quickly enough. "I don't think it complements the area; it doesn't fit in with anything else,' she said. She described it as "an eyesore" to the news outlet.
Another resident said the planters didn't "look nice". Meanwhile, another resident said the street makes "Birkenhead a laughing stock".
One caller to BBC Radio Merseyside said the scheme 'looks cheap and nasty', adding: "I can't see how that could even go within a fraction of the budget that you had; you've wasted all that money on a diabolical mess."
The caller continued: "Somebody somewhere knows who was responsible for it, and the people of Wirral have been told this was a big mistake. But we're not being told who the mistake was made by. How can we trust our council when so many of these really, really expensive regeneration mistakes are being made?"
Basnett has said traffic calming measures are needed, but has said the design did not match Birkenhead. She acknowledged the mocking of the road on social media, and said it "put Birkenhead on the map, for maybe the wrong reasons."
When the time comes, the road will need to be closed for the paint to be removed and then redone and redesigned when the time comes. Councillor Basnett has said the council would pay for the work but did not say how much it will cost.
