POOLE residents were astonished when they awoke to see council workers painting double yellow lines around cars parked in their street.

Opening up their curtains last week, people living in flats and houses at the Harbour Reach, a development on the water’s edge in Hamworthy, found their road adorned with paint.

Chris Ferguson, a tenant in Broomhill Way, said: “They just appeared overnight.

“We watched them finishing, and were hoping they’d just keep painting over the top of the car.

“It’s quite funny in a way. People are staying in their little spaces deliberately now.

“We were never asked about it and the homeowner hadn’t heard about it himself.”

Poole council’s principal engineer, Steve Dean, said the new lines had been painted because responsibility for the roads would soon transfer to the highways department and the roads are too narrow for parked cars.

“The amount of on-street parking now makes access very difficult at times and the council has been asked to impose waiting restrictions,” he said. “It was always our intention to impose parking controls in this area because the development is so close to the town centre and Poole Port employment area.”

Cars parked on the lines will get two weeks’ worth of warning notices before drivers pick up a parking fine.