Talk about putting a quart into a pint pot.
Kirklees Council signwriters have been hard at work with the white paint in Huddersfield town centre.
Unfortunately, the road isn’t big enough for what they wanted to say!
Drivers were puzzled by the appearance of huge letters on the lanes of the Ring Road in Southgate.
Two lanes filter traffic right into the town centre, one is labelled KINGS GATE – pointing to the Kingsgate Centre – while the other points to NORTH QUART.
Kingsgate is a popular destination for shoppers but North Quart has left people scratching their heads.
One theory is that it refers to Northern Quarter but no one seems to know what that is.
In 2009 the Examiner reported on a suggestion by town centre pressure group Town First to split Huddersfield into ‘quarters’ to help promote tourism and boost trade.
The idea was that Huddersfield could benefit from trendy ‘quarters’ like Manchester’s Northern Quarter and the upmarket Victoria Quarter in Leeds.
That never materialised but it seems Huddersfield’s Northern Quarter does exist in Kirklees Council’s world.
The new markings are connected to the forthcoming ‘bus gates’ scheme which will see cars banned from parts of the town centre.
A council spokesman said: “As part of the recent Southgate road resurfacing scheme the road markings were replaced and updated to take account of changes within the town centre.
“At this junction, drivers wishing to go to Kingsgate shopping centre car park queue in the lane marked Kingsgate.
“The road markings in the right hand lane previously said Town Centre, but general traffic will not be able to access the town centre this way in the near future but will be able to reach the northern part of the town centre via Lord Street.
“It was decided to have the lanes marked with the abbreviation North Quart.”
