MOTORISTS in Wellington have been defying local traffic wardens by ignoring newly-refreshed town centre car parking spaces.

The white lines defining three parking spaces in High Street, outside the former Crown Post Office building, faded away more than a year ago.

Near-bankrupt Somerset Council did not re-paint the spaces, which permit up to three vehicles to park parallel with the highway.

So, drivers fell into the habit of parking herringbone-style, which at times saw up to nine vehicles using the 30-minute time restricted spaces.

But this led to almost daily accidents or near-misses as motorists reversed into the flow of traffic in the busy High Street, with fights between drivers occasionally breaking out.

Wellington Town Council repeatedly pressed the county authority to re-mark the car parking spaces and the work was finally carried out at the end of last week, after other road markings including double yellow lines and ‘keep clear’ spaces were refreshed a fortnight ago.

However, over the weekend and again on Monday (August 4), drivers were ignoring the marked bays and continuing to park in herringbone fashion.

A town council spokesperson said: “Road markings in the town centre have been refreshed by Somerset Council and this includes the lay-by outside of the sorting office.

“If parking in this lay-by, please ensure that you are parked parallel to the road as indicated by the markings.

“Vehicles parked perpendicular to the road are at risk of receiving a parking ticket.

“A sign is being affixed to the lamppost to inform people of this.

“Thank you for your co-operation.”

Somerset and town Cllr Marcus Barr said: I think people have just got used to parking that way and it will probably take the traffic warden fining a load of drivers before the word gets around that they need to go back to parking properly.”