You can't park there! Or can you...? Double yellow painting peril for Wolverhampton council
Wolverhampton council workers had to come up with a solution as they marked out double yellow lines on a city road – only to find cars already parked on the street.
Well, what would you have done?
Their solution was simple; they went round the cars and left some stretches 'no parking' and others open to all comers.
The lines were painted on Mercury Drive, off Stafford Road, and were today described as 'extremely strange' and 'Wolverhampton council at its finest'.
It comes just a few months after local authority staff painted markings on a busy main road warning 'School Keep Clear' - outside a school site that was bulldozed three months ago.
The Mercury Drive lines were marked out last week and filled in yesterday.
Councillor Paul Singh said: "It seems an extremely strange course of action for workers to paint lines with gaps in them.
"It is an unusual course of action particularly when you bear in mind the job they did outside the old Penn Fields School."
Twitter user ?@ShannPurchasexx added: "Wolverhampton council at its finest. Gone around the parked cars with the double yellow lines."
But it is not only the unusual gaps in the markings that have annoyed residents - people are unhappy with the whole project to introduce double yellow lines.
Mercury Drive resident Kirk Butler, 34, said: "I've lived here for four years with not one accident or crash. The problem isn't outside these houses it's further down by Aldi, it gets too congested and no cars can move either way.
"They've only painted the lines on in the last week so I want to know why the council have done this and where's the evidence for them to justify it."
Wolverhampton council said: "The council always aims to minimise disruption and keep costs down.
"We do what we can to make it a clear road for the contractors but we cannot always ensure that, therefore we undergo phased marking.
"To keep disruption to a minimum, contractors went out in the early hours of Friday to paint the double yellow lines.
"Unfortunately a small number of cars were left parked overnight meaning the contractors had to return to complete the job, which is designed to prevent cars parking on that stretch of road and improve traffic flow."
In July, large yellow lettering was painted on Birches Barn Road in Graiseley outside the former Penn Fields Special School.
Council highways workers blocked one lane of the road off for a number of hours to paint the markings, despite the fact the school was no longer there. It had moved to a new £45m campus in Boundary Way and the old site was flattened earlier this year.
Councillors branded the blunder a 'scandalous waste of taxpayers' money'.
The authority was also criticised last year after road signs directing traffic towards Wolverhampton town centre were updated with a set of cut-out stickers - 14 years after it became a city. The stickers were placed over signs around the Parkfields and Ettingshall areas.
