RESIDENTS have slammed the council for “wasting money” after workmen painted fresh white lines – only to dig up the tarmac beneath them less than a week later.

Brighton and Hove City Council blamed a “lack of communication” after their contractors repainted the white lines surrounding the speed humps in Heath Hill Avenue in Brighton just days before the road was due to be resurfaced.

Bemused neighbours criticised the authority for the “pointless” spending as the council issued an apology. Jane Morley who has lived in the road for five years, said she wondered how much painting the lines had cost.

The 46-year-old said: “I have to pay my council tax, but why am I? It just seems ludicrous.

“Someone at the council must have known as we all had letters with the council’s logo on telling us the road was going to be resurfaced – and it needed it.”

Brenda Johnson, 70, said: “It is disgusting and they are just wasting money.”

Her son Trevor Johnson, from Dew Road, also criticised the council’s work.

The 44-year-old said: “It is obviously bad communication. I am sick to death of it.”

A council spokesman said: “We would like to apologise to residents for re-painting some road markings and then resurfacing over a small stretch of them. This was due to a lack of communication between our highways teams.”

Background

OVER the past few years there has been a shopping list of road improvement works carried out by the council.

• They have been overseen by city head of transport Mark Prior, who is paid £85,000 a year.

• Four plant pots were placed in Viaduct Road in an effort to slow down traffic.

• Work carried out on the junction of Edward Street and Blaker Street left the road so steep cars were scraping the ground.

• The £1million roundabout at Seven Dials started to disintegrate after just a year.

• A section of Vogue Gyratory cycle lane was labelled a “death trap” after three cyclists came off their bikes within minutes of completion.

• A new road layout in Willbury Villas was “too narrow” for most cars.