NOW you see 'em, now you don't! Residents were staggered when yellow lines were painted in a village near York - and then removed less than 48 hours later.

The 100 yards of lines were painted last Sunday on both sides of the main street near the primary school at Upper Poppleton by workers.

But two days later, workers were back to burn the yellow paint off the road, after it was discovered they had been painted in error.

City of York Council today apologised for any confusion caused, saying there had been "a mistake that came about when the wrong drawing was referred to on site on Sunday".

But it also revealed that workers might return - to paint some more lines in front of the school!

Residents today blasted the authority for wasting its own time and taxpayers' money.

One villager, Margaret Larkin, said: "It seems an awful waste of time and money."

Another resident, who did not wish to be named, said she had been completely baffled after seeing the lines taken up.

"I wondered what on earth was going on," she said.

"It seems typical of what we've come to expect of the council."

A council spokeswoman said that, as part of an effort to improve road safety outside the school, it had recently

been arranged for parents to park their vehicles on a site next door, to deter them from parking on the road outside.

"If parents continue to park on the road, there will be a need to take enforcement action and it is possible that yellow lines could be painted in front of the school," she said.

"This would force them to use the car park area provided.

"We apologise for any confusion caused by the error and, as soon as we realised what had happened, we took steps to rectify the situation as quickly as possible. Calls received from local residents have suggested that they would like to have seen the yellow lines retained, rather than removed, but we do need to give parents an opportunity to use the new system before we take such steps."

Poppleton resident Sue Wiper said school parents and pupils had been surprised and pleased to see the yellow lines near the school on Monday, and then amazed to see them being burnt off on Tuesday.

"Should we have gone to Specs Savers, or did the council really instruct (the council) to paint the lines and then remove them within a 24-hour period?" she asked.

She added that restaurants in Fossgate, which have been protesting about yellow lines in their street for a year now, could take heart at how quickly decisions could be taken to remove such lines in Poppleton.

Updated: 09:21 Saturday, March 12, 2005