A FOOTBALL mural which divided a Wirral community may have to be taken down.

The Tranmere Rovers mural on the side of a building Oxton, Wirral, went up last month without planning permission.

Many locals were outraged by the mural – saying it 'lowered the tone' of the conservation area.

However, others were very happy with it.

At the time, Wirral Council said they would contact the owner of the building – a cafe on Christchurch Road, to see if the mural was breaking planning rules.

The council has now decided that the mural is an advertisement and the owner must either remove it or apply for retrospective planning consent.

In a newsletter to local constituents, Liberal Democrat Oxton councillor Allan Brame, said: "This mural clearly divides local opinion, but most people who have contacted me feel it is wholly out of keeping in our conservation area."

The Lib Dem member for Oxton since 2018, continued: "It is regrettable that the owner did not consult the planning department and the local community before commissioning this painting."

Shortly after the mural went up, tempers boiled over as one disgruntled resident sent an angry letter to Ben Harrison, the man whose building the mural is painted on.

The letter read: "You might own the building, but you don't own the village.

"It's a holy show, cheap tasteless, bullyish graffiti.

"Not everyone likes football, especially Tranmere.

"We will have a proper painter and decorator and paint over it."

Defending the mural when it first went up, Mr Harrison told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "We don't want to offend anyone, we’ve used one of the best artists in Merseyside.

"He’s done 40 murals, he’s done some very tasteful [ones] and hopefully people will like it."

In a light-hearted response to local dissent, Tranmere fans set up an online petition calling for Oxton to be renamed 'Little Tranmere', in recognition of the club’s role in the local community.

The petition had 184 signatures at the time of writing.