London's Hackney council is targeting male revellers' time-honoured practice of necking a skinful, and then relieving themselves against walls, with a hydrophobic coating designed to send steaming streams straight back to the piss-taker.

According to the BBC, the authority spends £100k a year cleaning up after al fresco urinators, and has decided to spunk £1,000 treating walls at "two popular drinking locations in Shoreditch and Dalston".

Ultra-Ever Dry - supplied by US outfit UltraTech International - is so slash-repellent that any attempt to water protected walls will result in a self-administered golden shower.

The council's Feryal Dermici said: "If the prospect of a fine doesn't put them off from weeing in the street, maybe the risk of getting covered in urine will."

Back in March, the city of Hamburg tried out Ultra-Ever Dry in the lively St Pauli district, although it's not clear just how effective its "proprietary nanotechnology" proved against bursting German bladders. ®

Bootnote

Here's the Ultra-Ever Dry vid, proving its impressive hydrophobicosity: