Cat's eyes extinct as council adopts 'road studs' because tourists read its signs too literally

They're a great British invention that have guided countless travellers home late at night. But now it seems cat's eyes - or at least the name - will be scrapped.

The move follows reports of concerned tourists fearing that animal cruelty had become a standard practice on our country roads.

Signs saying "cat's eyes removed" were being read too literally so, after a string of mix-ups, Suffolk county council decided to replace them with signs warning of "road studs" ahead, and from now on the council will only refer to them that way.

For tourists, the change is a welcome clarification of the UK's highway safety regulations.

Frances Knobel, from the US, said she had been shocked when she first saw the cat's eyeswarning while on holiday in Suffolk.

"I had no idea - I had to stop the car and go back to see if I had read the sign correctly," she said. "It didn't make any sense and seemed very gruesome that people would boast that poor domestic animals were being so horribly mistreated.

"A local explained that it was a name that Britons gave to the light-reflecting rubber pads that reflect headlights."

The decision has been criticised by some residents. Christopher Hudson, a county councillor, said that it was a "bizarre" move that would lead to more confusion, not less.

"I can see why the change has been made, but to me this will add to the confusion," he said. "It seems a bizarre thing to do.

"Very well, visitors may now know there is no animal cruelty, but does anyone who lives in England know what a road stud is?" Rebecca Brewer, a mother from Ipswich, said that her daughter thought people were mutilating felines.

"I have a five-year-old daughter who was very upset the first time she saw the sign - she really thought that cruel people were torturing cats," she said.

"I had to explain to her what it meant - and that our pet cat was quite safe."

Suffolk county council has said its less ambiguous signs and the road studs phrase would become the standard phrase adopted by staff.

Cat's eyes were invented by Percy Shaw in 1934 and in 2006 were voted one of Britain's top 10 designs alongside Concorde, Mini and the World Wide Web.

Mr Shaw came up with the idea while driving home from the pub one foggy night near his Yorkshire home.

Coming down a steep hill, a sudden flash from a cat's eyes caused him to stop the car. He realised he was travelling on the wrong side of the road and was heading for the treacherous edge.

After trial and error, he eventually patented his cat's eye design in 1934. The Government adopted the studs during the enforced blackout in the Second World War. There are an estimated 500 million cat's eyes n the UK. In the US, they are known as Botts' Dots, turtles or buttons.