When the council voted to paint double yellow lines on a road, this is probably not what they were expecting.

Swale council’s Joint Transportation Board agreed to impose the parking restrictions at a meeting in September.

But when Cllr Cameron Beart (Con, Queenborough and Halfway), who sits on the board, took a drive down Cooks Lane in Milton Regis, he was amused by what he found.

He said: “We had agreed to put new lines all along there but it looks like they’ve painted in-between the cars.

“The whole road was supposed to be done and I’ve just come along the road and I couldn’t believe it."

He believes cars must have been parked on the road when workers who paint the lines arrived to do the job.

He added: “They will need to come back to paint the rest, joining the bits of line up and that will be done at the taxpayers' expense.

“You couldn’t make this up.”

A Swale council spokesman said: “Contractors have been in the borough installing various double yellow lines following some new Traffic Orders which have now been completed.

"When they attended the site at Cooks Lane in Milton Regis at 6am there were already parked cars along the road, so they completed some short sections of lining where they could before leaving for the next site.

“We understand it may look odd at the moment, but they will be returning to complete the works this week.

"The contractors take advantage of any available spaces when they arrive to install lining and then make several attempts on other occasions, with no extra charges for the number of visits it takes.”