A COUNCIL has left motorists baffled with a bizarre series of red route parking bays which cover the road AND the pavement.
The parking spaces, in Tipton, West Midlands, line a busy road – with white lines painted half on the road and half on the pavement.
The bays, which are big enough for two cars, have been painted on Park Lane West – a residential road.
The sight of the painted lines, which are not supported by dropped kerbs, has left motorists and pedestrians baffled.
The red route was painted onto the road around two months ago but only became active this month.
Letters were sent to all residents in the area explaining that no parking would be allowed along the red route at any time.
Despite this, last week, the council scrubbed out the red double lines outside two houses on the road and replaced them with the two parking bays.
David Rollison, who has lived on the road for 15 years and whose house has one of the parking bays, said he had asked the council for them to be painted.
The 45-year-old engineer said: “We asked the council for parking because we did not know anything about the red route.
“We just woke up one morning and the red lines were there.
“They did it at about 11-o-clock at night. We phoned the council who told us that we should have received a letter about it.
“I told them we had not received a letter and that I was not very happy that we had lost our parking spaces.”
Mr Rollison said he had parked outside his home quite happily since he moved in.
He said the council eventually agreed to paint the residents-only parking bays.
He said: “We have been told we have to park 50 per cent on the pavement and 50 per cent on the road.”
Paresh Patel who runs the Costcutter shop on Park Lane West said he was surprised when council workers painted the parking bays half on the curb.
He said: “It looks a bit daft to me. I don’t know why they don’t indent the curb to create proper bays.”
Lee Round, 35, who is currently working as an industrial cleaner at a nearby building site said: “It just looks stupid to me, and a bit of a mess. It looks like they haven’t done it properly.”
Bamboozled pedestrian Henry Jennings said: “They’re absolutely stupid, surely it goes against everything that the red route was designed for having parking bays there?
“And having them half-on the pavement reduces the space for pedestrians, which is especially bad when you consider that there’s a junior school up the road and it makes less space for mums and prams.”
Even motorists have hit out at the bays, which lack dropped kerbs, saying that they fear they could cause damage to cars.
“You have to speed up to get up on the kerb, which is dangerous if there’s anyone walking past.
“And I’d be worried about knocking my car up if I tried to park there.”
Sandwell Council’s cabinet member for neighbourhood services Councillor Derek Rowley said: “We agreed to put in these parking bays for two properties in Park Lane West because we try to accommodate residents’ parking needs where possible when putting in red routes.
“They have no vehicle access to the rear and the front gardens are not large enough to be converted into parking spaces.
“We used this type of half on/half off parking bay because the road is narrow at this point and we couldn’t move the kerb due to the number of utilities that would have had to be diverted.
“The footpath is still wide enough to use when the bays are in use.”
