THEY’RE now a whiter shade of pale – many of BCP’s white line road markings are so faint they can barely be seen.

The claim comes from some councillors, including one who says that he has been trying to get road markings in his ward repainted for a decade without success.

Cllr Mark Howell says that if there is a system for prioritising the work it is either not working, or roads in his Poole Town ward never get to the top of the list.

“I’ve been complaining about some for about ten years no, some of which are now pretty much non-existent,” he said, adding that the lines were important for road safety, especially for pedestrians and cyclists.

Other councillors have been making similar claims, including Cllr Ann Stribley, who says that one road in her Parkstone ward regularly sees traffic hampered by a delivery lorry parking for an hour at a time in an area where the road lines have virtually worn out.

She said that she has reported lines which need repainting on the council’s website system, but claims that nothing ever gets done. She has now asked for the name of a council official to phone who will personally ensure the work is completed.

“I’ve reported these endlessly over the last two years but I’ve not seen any action at all,” she said.

But not everyone is unhappy. Overview and scrutiny committee chairman Cllr Steve Bartlett said lines he had reported in his ward were dealt with, promptly.

Director of transport and engineering Julian McLaughlin said that the system did work, but because of limited budgets, jobs had to be prioritised with those where there was a safety aspect getting first call on resources.

He said the council received just under £8m a year from the Department of Transport for core road works , £3.1m for capital projects and £4.8 for maintenance, money which was often topped up by making bids for additional funding for specific projects.

Committee members called for a list of road works, ward by ward, for both basic maintenance, pot hole repair and line painting with a predicted timescale so that they could tell residents who inquires if there was a chance of work being completed.

“People haven’t been able to establish whether their roads have made it onto the repairs list, or not. It seems ridiculous that the information is not even available to ward councillors,” said Cllr Vikki Slade.

“It’s madness that we can’t even offer an assurance to residents where they even sit on the list, or that there is a list.”